Steve Smith

The former trustees of a charity Set Up to aid migrants in Calais have been criticised over their management.

In a report, The Charity Commission criticised the financial, leadership and complaints processes at Care4Calais in The Past .

Clare Moseley, founder and former chief executive, quit during the three-year inquiry.

The Charity 's new board said its growth had " vastly outpaced" needed structural reforms.

Care4Calais was Set Up in 2016. Between October 2017 and August 2020, payments of More Than £340,000 had been made to Ms Moseley's personal bank account, according to The Commission .

The watchdog added Ms Moseley said this arrangement saved The Charity around £3,000 a year in Foreign Exchange fees.

But The Report concluded that while no funds were misused or misappropriated for private benefit, The Arrangement was " inappropriate and had put The Charity 's funds at undue risk".

However, it praised the new trustees, saying management and governance has now " improved significantly".

Ms Moseley said she had always followed the advice of lawyers, accountants and auditors and that independent officials had " always given clean reports on our accounts".

She Said the Care4Calais had gone from a grass-roots project to an organisation with a £2m turnover that had " helped hundreds of thousands of refugees in the UK and France".

Another former trustee was Ms Moseley's sister. The Commission said its inquiry " found little evidence to demonstrate that any past conflicts of interest or loyalty which may have existed had been appropriately managed".

It concluded that, coupled with poor minute-taking, this amounted to misconduct and/or mismanagement.

The Report also highlighted how The Company operated without the required number of trustees and, on at least one occasion, one trustee handled a complaint about another trustee they were related to, in breach of The Charity 's own policy.

Commission chairman Orlando Fraser KC said: " Our inquiry found that, over a significant period of time, and following a rapid expansion of its operations, Care4Calais was not managed well. Its funds were put At Risk , and there was serious misconduct and/or mismanagement by the former trustees. "

He Said The Charity is now " in a much better position to deliver on its purposes".

Current Care4Calais CEO Steve Smith said that the new board of trustees " all acknowledge that the growth in our humanitarian work since 2015 vastly outpaced the development of The Charity 's governance structures".

Welcoming the conclusion of The Inquiry , He Said Care4Calais' commitment to support refugees " never wavered" and there was now an opportunity to create " a new and forward-looking organisation that puts refugees front and centre of our work. "

Source of news: bbc.com