Governance shake-up for children's charity
Child protection issues, lack of independent trustees and inadequate financial controls first alerted the Charity Commission to take a closer look at the Association for Reaching and Instructing Children in Africa.
The original inquiry report into this small charity (£137,095 in income) had stipulated the following improvements:
- Robust child protection policy. The charity brought children over from Africa on a choir tour in the UK but had no procedures in place to ensure that the families the children stayed with were suitable hosts. An ‘adequate’ child protection policy has since been drawn up and two trustees have been appointed child safeguarding co-ordinators.
- Lack of independence on the board. Four new independent trustees had to be recruited, bringing the total up to seven with potential conflicts declared from the outset.
- Adequacy of financial controls. There had been a problem with an audit trail for funds from individuals sponsoring specific children in a village in Uganda. The charity has since obtained NGO status in Uganda which has made this process much easier.
- Indirect trustee benefits. The board reviewed how appropriate it was for the charity to employ a trustee’s daughter.The new board discussed this in a meeting and agreed it was appropriate (the parent trustee abstained from voting) and the contract was issued.
- Membership lists. As the charity’s governing document provides for members to elect trustees, the charity needed a membership list which was kept up to date. It now has a register of 34 members.
www.charity-commission.gov.uk/Library/rcr_africa.pdf
Author: Clarissa Dann
Clarissa Dann was the editor of Caritas as well as an HR and management online service,he People Bulletin until July 2011.
She is now the editor of the specialist trade finance magazine, Trade and Forfaiting Review which can be viewed at www.tfreview.com but does write on charity finance and investment from time to time.
Clarissa has a background in legal and professional publishing, as well as business journalism and holds an MBA from
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