05 July 2002
In its report, Giving confidently: the role of the Charity Commission in regulating charities, the Commons' Public Accounts Committee called on the Charity Commission – the body that oversees the work of Britain's 185,000 charities – to get tough with organisations that have shoddy accounts.
Some 38% of charities either failed to submit annual accounts promptly or to provide appropriate information on performance in 1999/2000, the PAC found.
'It really concerns me that so many charities fail to meet their basic reporting obligations,' said committee chair Edward Leigh.
'They are treating the commission with contempt. The commission needs to take aggressive action to tackle this, possibly including fines for trustees or denying them the right to rattle tins on the high street.'
MPs also said the commission should devote more resources to looking into accounts. In total, charities have a gross income of £25bn and net assets of £70m.
This is the third time the PAC has looked into the commission in 14 years and each time it has criticised shortcomings in its work.
The PAC conceded that some improvements had been made, such as investigating possible abuses of charitable status, but MPs said more must be done.
A spokesman for the commission admitted 'there was some way to go' but added that 'established improvement plans were already being implemented which go some way to meeting the PAC's concerns'.
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