An inquiry has been opened into a South Gloucestershire charity after evidence was found of paying wages despite having no staff.
The Charity Commission has opened a statutory inquiry into the Shire Way Community Association, based in Yate, over concerns about misconduct and/or mismanagement.
The Shire Way Community Association aims to advance education and provide leisure and recreational facilities for the inhabitants of Sodbury, Yate and Westerleigh.
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The Charity Commission said: "The charity has failed to submit its annual returns to the Charity Commission for the financial year ending 2020, having previously been included in the Double Defaulters class inquiry for an earlier failure to submit annual reports, accounts and returns for the financial years ending 2018 and 2019.
"The Charity Commission subsequently found evidence of payments of ‘wages’, despite accounts for 2019 stating the charity has no employees.
"There are also questions about the information reported to the Commission regarding to the identity of the charity’s trustees."
It said that, on January 13, the Charity Commission opened a statutory inquiry, which will assess:
- The trustees’ compliance with legal obligations for the content, preparation and filing of the charity’s accounts and other information or returns;
- whether the charity has a sufficient number of trustees who are managing it in accordance with its governing document;
- if the trustees have responsibly managed the charity’s resources and financial affairs.
The regulator may extend the scope of the inquiry if additional regulatory issues emerge.
It is the Commission’s policy, after it has concluded an inquiry, to publish a report detailing what issues the inquiry looked at, what actions were undertaken as part of the inquiry and what the outcomes were.
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