Out-of-school club provider Catz Club, under its working name ofSchoolfriend etc, recovered 15,000 from Labour under thesupervision of the Charity Commission on 3 September.
The Commission had received a complaint from Greg Clark, theConservative Party's charities minister, on 28 August about a cashdonation of 7,500 accepted by the Labour Party on 27 June.
Schoolfriend etc said the 7,500 donation was an 'administrativeerror' made at the same time as another 7,500 payment to attendthe Labour Party Sports Dinner. Paying for places at the dinner eventwas fully legal, but the charity decided to ask for return of the whole15,000.
The matter was the subject of a regulatory case report published by theCharity Commission.
Andrew Hind, chief executive of the Charity Commission, said, 'Donationsto political parties are absolutely prohibited for charities, so thiswas of serious concern to us. That's why resolving the issue was apriority, and the charity confirmed the money would be returned to itwithin days of the concern first being raised.
'This is a good result for the charity, and means we don't have to lookat the question of liability. In a similar situation, if aninappropriate donation was not returned, we would require the trusteesto personally repay the misapplied funds so as to ensure that thecharity doesn't lose out.'
Greg Clark said, 'It beggars belief that Labour should accept money froma lottery-funded charity that surely needs all the money it can get tofund its clubs for disadvantaged schoolchildren.'
In a statement, Schoolfriend etc said, 'The charity identified the eventin question (Labour Party Sports Dinner) as a good opportunity tofurther the charity's aims and engage with key stakeholders. The charitywas only able to attend through the generosity of its supporters and atno cost to the charity. The charity's reasons for attending the eventwere to pursue its aims and communicate its messages and were not tosupport a political party or its objectives.
'Part of the payment for the event was characterised as a donation to apolitical party and was incorrectly made by the charity. As soon as thecharity became aware of the administrative error, the situation wasrectified, to the full satisfaction of the Charity Commission.'
Schoolfriend etc was the subject of controversy last year, closing 150clubs and revealing losses of over 3m for the year endingSeptember 2006 (News, 22 November 2007). The charity's financialstatements for that year showed spending of nearly 1.3m on'activity materials' and over 166,000 on 'travelling andentertaining'.
- The latest case report can be read atwww.charitycommission.gov.uk/Library/investigations/pdfs/rcrcatz.pdf.
