By Eric King
The Charity Commission, the independent regulator of charities in England and Wales, has opened a class statutory inquiry into The Martin Foundation – The Collegiate Charitable Foundation.
The charities provide bursaries to students for the purposes of attending independent primary and secondary schools; provide advertising, facilities and equipment for the schools, and assist the local community, however The Martin Foundation is not currently carrying out any activity.
Following complaints from the members of te public and information from other regulators the Commission engaged with the charities in respect of a number of regulatory concerns, the Commission established that there were clear and ongoing serious regulatory issues relating to the administration of the charities by the trustees. These included the management of conflicts of interest, protecting and properly accounting for the charities’ assets, and potential unauthorised trustee benefit.
The inquiry is examining:
The extent to which potential conflicts of interest and connected party transactions have been properly managed
The extent to which there has been any unauthorised trustee benefit
Whether the charities operated for exclusively charitable purposes
In order to protect the assets of the charities, the Commission has issued orders to the trustees and the charities’ bank under section 76(3) of the Charities Act 2011. These are temporary orders and will be reviewed on a regular basis in line with normal procedures.
Due to the seriousness of its regulatory concerns the Commission also appointed Geoff Carton-Kelly and Tom McLennan of FRP Advisory as joint interim managers of the charities on 13 August 2018. The interim managers are appointed with all the powers and duties of trustees and will act to the exclusion of the current charity trustees. The Commission says these are temporary appointments which will be reviewed on a regular basis in line with normal procedures.