Charity mismangement

honest7

Yes I have photocopied chequebook receipts, and copy of Inland Revenue warning letters which I will be presenting to the meeting next week

The weird thing is that they DON'T even have a Treasurer at the moment. I kept asking the Chairperson since the beginning of meetings, that he needed to appoint someone straight away to sort out the financial affairs.I have been asked a few times if I would like to take on the role, and each time I explained that if that was to happen then the financial side of matters would have to be up to scratch. As I said it has been an uneasy feeling, that I couldn't shake off these past few weeks, and that is when I decided to do a spot of investigating, and its a lucky thing that I didn't take on the role as I would have been landed even further into it.

I only found out that she was a volunteer 2 weeks ago by the Vice Chairperson. But when I asked the volunteer in the past what her actual role was, she just kept saying that she was the Financial Support Worker and took care of the finances. Some of the people on the Management team are quite intimidated by her and I can see why.

It was also brought to my attention that she is left unattended in the office by herself, and I have clearly told them that it is against Health and Safety regulations that a volunteer worker be left on their own(again they did not know this), and I also found that she changed the password on the computer a day before she went on holiday preventing other staff from doing their work.

I'm uncovering so many disturbing things and feel like I could really kick myself

LittleVoice

honest7 wrote: »

The Project Officer linked to the organisation also writes out cheques, to fund her college and university courses by using the charity accounts.This I find strange considering that she is on a paid salary.

I don't see why a salaried worker should not, as a matter of principle, have her course fees paid. Many employers pay course fees for their employees - generally when they are related to their work. It does, of course, need to be agreed.

honest7 wrote: »

I have clearly told them that it is against Health and Safety regulations that a volunteer worker be left on their own(again they did not know this),

A side issue - are the H&S rules different for volunteers compared with employees? Is it not that a risk assessment needs to be done and the H&S issues considered. If there is negligible risk on H&S grounds, why would the regulations forbid it?

Errata

Oh dear, why does none of this surprise me. Having been involved in supporting many voluntary organisations over the years, this 'method' of running one is not unusual.
It may be useful to consider who is really suffering because of the organisational mismanagement. In this case it's the client group.
Working on the assumption the organisation has a contract to provide from the local authority and is funded by the local authority..........in my view the financial irregularities, mismanagement and maladministration are too serious to be sorted out by a management committee There may be less pain all round if the local authority is made aware of the situation immediately and invited to investigate.

PlutoinCapricorn

I really feel for you: I am so glad that you listened to your intuition and did not take on the role of Treasurer officially.

Why do you want to kick yourself? What have you done except to spot the irregularities? You are not the one to blame - I know that it is locking the stable door, but perhaps you could refer your colleagues to www.trusteenet.org.uk, where their responsibilities are defined. It seems to me that not only do they as you say know their roles but not their responsibilities, but they are unaware of basic procedures such as internal financial controls, and there are no written policies. They should have a financial control policy, a volunteer policy, a health & safety policy, and ensure that they are implemented.

If you google "blank cheques"+charities, you will unearth many similar cases, not to mention financial policies which say that blank cheques will never be signed.

The more I think about this, the worse it seems; it gives a bad name to our sector, and could easily have been avoided.

honest7

Little Voice: I do not have a problem with a paid member of staff having part of the course fees paid for, but what I do have a problem with is when the member of staff and volunteer are taking 4 courses between them in a year, with one of the courses costing almost £2000, and then taking further courses which range from between £300-£800. These courses are not related/linked to the organisation by any means, and the Management Committee were not informed about this.

The client group obviously loses out as the thousands of pounds that have gone on course fees could easily have been used to organise events and other services that would have benefited them.

Errata

honest7 - the organisation is in total chaos and well past the stage where a management committee could bring it back into good order and control.
Your motives are to be applauded, but far too much has gone wrong for the organisation not to be reported to its funder(s) immediately.

fengirl_2

On no account go to your funders at this stage. You need to know the extent of the problem first. Telling your funders will put the service at risk.

An audit would cost a fortune, you just need to look at the extent of the current problems first of all.

Errata

fengirl, the service is at risk already and probably failing. Staff and volunteers appear to be out of control and please themselves, management committee isn't doing its job and doesn't appear to understand what it should be doing, CRB checks not carried out, non co-operation with the accountant.........can't get much worse can it.

devils_advocate

Fengirl

Sorry, but by her admission the OP is out of her depth, although she is showing commendable skills in highlighting issues so far. The service appears to be already at risk because of apparent fraud, and the volunteer failing to differentiate between thine and mine. From the info so far, it looks like an external investigation is needed.

OP, if the accountant is a member of a professional body, even if he is not an auditor or an 'officer' of the charity, do remind him of his professional responsibilities to report under the Proceeds of Crime Act. This might focus his attention.

OP well done on getting this far. This seems to be a rather unsubtle misappropriation, with some very bsic attempts to cover tracks such as the changing of passwords. It's quite easy to get copy bank statements, suppliers will provide copy invoices, and anyone with the skillsets can piece together trails very easily.

honest7

I just want to thank everyone for their advice at this difficult time. The meeting is in a few days, and the accountant will be there. I do however need to know the extent of the problem at hand first before I go to the funders. Hopefully I will get more information from the accountant, and we can then proceed from there. But in all honesty this is not looking good for the organisation and I am more than prepared to contact the funders if nothing gets resolved.