A charity has been criticised by the Charity Commission for filing its accounts consistently late over eight years.

The total days Islamic Education Centre and Mosque was overdue in filing its returns with the regulator during this period was 4,036, an investigation by the regulator found.

The late filing period began with its accounts for the year ending March 2016, which were eventually filed 986 days late.

Its most recent accounts, for the year ending March 2023, were filed 15 days late.

The latest accounts filed were for the year ending 2018. These were submitted to the regulator 1,055 days late.

“This is a prolonged pattern of behaviour which demonstrates serious failings by the trustees to ensure that their charity is accountable, transparent and that they comply with their legal reporting obligations,” said the Charity Commission.

During the regulator’s investigation trustees said two years ago that “there had been issues in the past with record keeping which meant that accounting records were poor”.

They told the regulator in 2022 that they were putting in place measures to submit outstanding accounts. But they subsequently failed to submit financial information on time.

“The inquiry found that there was a lack of relevant governance and management written policies and procedures at the charity, for example, in relation to financial controls,” said the regulator.

Its probe also found that there have been problems relating to renovation of the charity’s mosque, “which resulted in losses” to the charity as the trustees “felt obliged to pay additional costs” to a contractor to complete the work.

“In addition, invoices for the renovations were not systematically retained, which meant that records and accounts were not accurately produced,” added the regulator.

“The inquiry found that the trustees were unable to account for large amounts of cash withdrawals relating to this project.

“The trustees explained to the inquiry that the majority of these withdrawals were as a result of the contractor receiving cash payments for work undertaken.”

Following its investigation the regulator has issued a reminder to charities of their responsibilities around submitting financial information on time.

“Charity trustees are under a legal duty to submit annual updates, returns, annual reports and accounting documents to the Commission as the regulator of charities depending upon the level of the charity’s income and type of charity,” it said.

“Failure to submit the required accounting information to the Commission is a criminal offence. The Commission also regards it as mismanagement and/or misconduct in the administration of a charity.”

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