The Charity Commission has opened a statutory inquiry into the Sunderland-based charity
The Charity Commission has announced that it has opened a statutory inquiry into the Islamic Education Centre and Mosque (1150827) in Sunderland. The inquiry has been opened due to regulatory concerns that there is, or has been, misconduct and/or mismanagement in the administration of the charity.
The Commission has previously engaged with the charity as part of a ‘class inquiry’ examining ‘double defaulters’, charities that have failed to file the legally required financial information for two or more consecutive years.
As part of the class inquiry the Commission ordered the Islamic Education Centre and Mosque to submit all outstanding accounting information by July 2020. Despite issuing frequent reminders this deadline was not met. The relevant accounting information was eventually filed on December 2021. The Commission is currently reviewing these submissions.
The charity’s failure to submit the necessary accounting documents on time has been a repeated pattern of behaviour. Prior to its submission last December, the charity had gone three years without filing the legally required financial information. This is of serious concern in relation to the trustees’ duty to be accountable and transparent to the public.
The inquiry will examine the following regulatory issues:
The Commission may extend the scope of the inquiry if additional 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. Reports of previous inquiries are available on GOV.UK.
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