Charity Commission
Harmsworth House
13-15 Bouverie Street
London EC4Y 8DP

Our ref: CR-G252611-CD(Ldn)

Dear Mr Jones

16 October 2001

Dear Mr Jones

_Norfolk Rehabilitation and Community Initiatives (290302)_

I write further to your letter of 23rd February [sic (September!)] and the email sent to our complaints' address. This email address is used for complaints against the Charity Commission itself and not individual charities, and therefore your correspondence has been passed to me.

Thank you for providing the detailed information enclosed with your letter. As you are aware charity trustees are obliged to administer their charity according to the rules set down in their charity's governing document and to act at all times in the best interests of the charity. They must also adhere to their statutory obligations. However,  within this framework, charity trustees have a wide discretion as to how they run the charity and apply its money.

The Commission is precluded by law from acting in the internal administration of charities, and we are therefore unable to substitute our judgement for that of charity trustees. We are generally unable to undo a decision taken by charity trustees where they have properly exercised their discretion in doing so. In cases such as this, it is the responsibility of the charity's trustees to resolve any problems that might arise. However, where there is evidence to suggest that charity trustees have either broken the rules in the governing document or charity law, then we may become involved.

In view of this, and the issues raised in your letter, I am only able to raise these issues with the trustees directly, should you give consent to me doing so. If you so desire it is possible to remain anonymous throughout this process, but is must be borne in mind that the trustees may become aware of your identity if they know this is a matter of concern to you. Please confirm that I may use your name when contacting the trustees.

Should you give your consent to me contacting the charity I can confirm that I shall address the issues raised with regard to the accounts and accounting procedures. The records held by the Commission include the accounts for the financial year ending 31st March 2000, and I can therefore see no reason why these accounts would need to be approved again by the membership of the charity. However, I can confirm that the  trustees appear to be in breach of Articles 13, 44 and 45 of the Memorandum and Articles of Association, which state that the balance sheet should be sent to every member and laid before a general meeting. From the information you have provided it appears that this was not the case at this years Annual General Meeting.

With regard to the issue of the reserves held by the charity. This is presumably a policy created by the trustees and can therefore be revoked by them at any stage. It is not a statutory requirement for the charity to keep any level of reserves. If the charity cannot meet the level of reserves originally intended, this would not be a matter for the Charity Commission to become involved in, but a matter for the trustees.

Finally, the Commission is unable to become involved disputes [sic] regarding employment law. I would suggest that you seek independent legal advice with regard to this matter should you feel it appropriate.

I hope that this information is helpful but if you require any further advice please do not hesitate to contact me.

I regret that, for financial and practical reasons, the Commission cannot preserve all correspondence indefinitely and this correspondence will be destroyed after three months if you have not been in contact.

Yours sincerely
...signed Caroline Roche
Caroline Roche
Charity Support Division

Well, I fully intend to give them full permission to use my name and to proceed. Considering what happened at the AGM, I think most people might _just_ have an inkling of who shopped them!

Not sure about how they (the Commission) see accounts. No mention of the year ending 1999, which was also, supposedly, presented (though _not_ in full) at the AGM. As regards membership of the charity, I sincerely doubt that we hold a list _at all_ of _members_, never mind a current one, and know for a fact that the balance sheet was never sent anywhere before the AGM, although  one of the clients has been mailing out the annual report document. Thinking about it, perhaps she was sending it to those supposed to be  members, but rather doubt it. Haven't ever heard anyone talk about people that are 'members' of the charity. Haven't seen anything to indicate how a person becomes a member at all, and was never, at any stage, required to inform anyone that they were no longer considered to be one, or to remove any names from such a list. I suspect she might just have been using our Christmas card mailing list!

TTFN!

JJ