Former chief executive says an effective regulator won't be possible under current chair
The former chief executive of England’s Charity Commission has launched a swingeing attack on the regulator’s current chair.
Andrew Hind (below) defended the body’s performance under his tenure from 2004-2010 and said its current problems won’t be addressed under chair William Shawcross.
Criticism of the Charity Commission has been mounting ever since the Cup Trust debacle when it was discovered the charity had raised £176 million in donations, claimed £46m in tax relief, but spent only £55,000 on charitable activities over two years.
This caused "untold damage to the regulator’s reputation as a competent and effective organisation" says Hind.
Writing in Charity Finance Yearbook 2015, he says: "The Cup Trust error wasn’t a function of not having enough money to do the job properly, nor was it the result of having been influenced by any party political pressure. The cause lay a lot closer to home. It was bad judgement and inadequate leadership from the senior executive team and the board that was wholly responsible for the mess."
Shawcross’s leadership has been “characterised by a continual stream of maverick interventions from the chair, which have lacked context and strategic coherence (CEO pay, terrorist infiltration of charities, proposals for changes to the annual return)”.
Hind said the commission has a critical role to play in championing the concept of charity and seeking to defend its fundamental values and principles but had missed opportunities to do this.
"Standing up for the right of charities to campaign in accordance with the law is a good case in point," he writes. "It was shameful that the commission’s voice was not heard in 2013 speaking out against the lobbying act."
Hind reserves praise for the Charity Commission’s chief executive Paula Sussex and long-serving staff saying there was an 80% chance that going forward the regulator would have a high-performing executive team.
However, the chances of it achieving effective board oversight with Shawcross in the chair was just 20% he adds.
The Charity Commissio has been asked for comment.
