A husband and wife have been disqualified from sitting on charity boards after being criticised by the Charity Commission for their running of a school charity in Birmingham.

The regulator found that the couple, Asif and Samina Jawaid, were responsible for multiple failures around managing conflicts of interest and filing accounts at the charity Birmingham Education Trust, which teaches Muslim girls.

The charity’s current annual return for the year ending August 2022 is overdue by 109 days and its returns for previous four years were all filed late. Its return for the year ending August 2018 was eventually filed last year, 1093 days late.

Other concerns were that only one of the couple was a signatory on the charity's bank account and given their relationship “the Commission found that they were unable to manage any potential conflicts of interest”.

This situation “was further complicated” as Mrs Jawaid was also employed as a headteacher at the school, where she hired the couple’s two daughters as teachers.

The regulator’s investigation found that Mrs Jawaid’s salary as a headtacher was in breach of the charity’s governing document that prohibits trustees from being employed.

In addition, the regulator learned during its probe that the charity had an additional trustee, Arif Jawaid, the brother of Asif.

But the regulator said it “has not been able to establish when Mr Arif Jawaid resigned as a trustee" and it "found no evidence to indicate that Mr Arif Jawaid had been actively involved in the administration of the charity”.

Asif and Samina Jawaid’s conduct “fell far below the standards the Commission, and the public, expect”, said the regulator’s head of investigations Amy Spiller.

“Basic duties of financial record-keeping and reporting, which are essential in maintaining trust in individual charities and the sector as a whole, were neglected," she added.

“Our intervention has rightfully culminated in the removal of the original trustees and the appointment of new ones. The charity’s recent outstanding accounts have been submitted, and I hope it is now back on track to deliver for its beneficiaries.”

The Charity Commission’s investigation report into the couple states: “Conflicts of interest are more likely when there are only a small number of trustees on the board, when trustees are closely related, or when the charity has dealings with organisations in which the trustees have interests.

“It is vital that trustees avoid becoming involved in situations in which their personal interests may be seen to conflict with their duties as trustees. The trustees should put in place policies and procedures to identify and manage such conflict.”

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