New charity investigation: Grove Mountain

Charity Commission investigates Grove Mountain over financial concerns

The Charity Commission, the independent regulator of charities in England and Wales, has opened a new statutory inquiry into Grove Mountain, registered charity number 1162684, and has frozen the charity’s bank accounts. The investigation was opened on 11 August 2017.

The charity provides books to the Caribbean for educational purposes.

After concerns regarding the charity’s finances were raised with the Commission by a third party, the Commission examined the charity’s accounts for the financial year ending 1 April 2016. The Commission found that the majority of the charity’s income for the year was withdrawn in cash and that there was a pattern of large cash withdrawals being made shortly after donations or identical amounts had been deposited.

This raises regulatory concerns for the Commission regarding the charity’s financial controls and whether the cash withdrawals have been spent on meeting the charity’s objects. A statutory inquiry has therefore been opened to examine whether:

• the charity has been operating for exclusively charitable purposes for the public benefit in furtherance of its charitable objects
• the financial controls of the charity are adequate and its funds have been properly expended
• the trustees have complied with their legal duties in respect of the administration, governance and management of the charity

It is the Commission’s policy, after it has concluded an inquiry, to publish a report detailing what issues the inquiry looked at, what actions were undertaken as part of the inquiry and what the outcomes were. Reports of previous inquiries by the Commission are available on GOV.UK.

The charity’s details can be viewed on the Commission’s online charity search tool.

From:

The Charity Commission

Published:

23 November 2017