The Charity Commission has opened a statutory inquiry into Muslim Aid, but trustees are appealing the decision.
Civil Society News reports that the Commission is unhappy about the progress that Muslim Aid has made towards its action plan that was issued during the previous investigation.
However, Muslim Aid has appealed to Charity Tribunal which has scheduled a hearing for mid-July.
The Charity Commission said: “The Commission opened an inquiry in September 2020, over concerns about the charity’s governance and management, including its failure to fully implement an action plan issued during a previous statutory inquiry. The decision to open the Inquiry has been appealed and is due to be considered by the Charity Tribunal.”
Muslim Aid said: “We can confirm that the Charity Commission has opened an inquiry and that Muslim Aid has appealed this decision with the Charity Tribunal. We continue to actively co-operate with the commission and have asked for the decision to open an inquiry to be reconsidered.”
Muslim Aid has suffered a troubled last few years. In 2020 former CEO Jehangir Malik left the organisation months after an internal investigation was launched into allegations of mismanagement and malpractice at the charity. Kashif Shabir, formerly Transformation and Strategy Director at Muslim Aid, replaced him.
In 2019 the Charity Commission found serious mismanagement on the part of the former Board of Trustees. It opened a statutory inquiry into the charity in 2013 (before Jehangir Malik’s appointment or that of the current Board of Trustees) over concerns of significant financial loss, serious governance failures, poor financial controls and loss or misuse of charitable funds for improper purpose.
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In October 2016 it appointed an Interim Manager who worked alongside Malik to complete a full governance and infrastructure review of the charity and a new senior leadership team was recruited. In addition, a new Borad of Trustees was appointed in January 2018.
