Charitable Giving

The OSCR Report into GERA just gets worse, I'm afraid to say - see post dated 19 February 2013 - ''Keeping Up With The Joneses' - for the background.  

Here are some more extracts from the OSCR report:

"Having carefully considered the information provided about the decision by the GERA charity trustees in relation to the severance package agreed for the chairty's Chief Executive, we have concluded that the charity trustees breached their section 66 duties when deciding to make the discretionary payment [at a cost of £232,708] to augment the Chief Executive's period of membership of the Pension Scheme."

"This is considered misconduct in the administration of the charity. Our reasons for reaching this conclusion are as follows:

1 A very considerable sum of the charity's assets which should have been used to further the charity's pursposes was removed from the charitable sector by the charity trustees for the private benefit of a former employee.

2 The decision to augment the Chief Executive's period of membership of the Pension Scheme was taken by the charity's trustees without first obtaining external professional advice about the advisability of the proposal. Charity trustees were assured that the sevrance package was based on the discretion applied by Glasgow City Council at the time, the Chief Executive's former employer. A chairty trustee who was also an elected member of Glasgow City Council told OSCR that the augmentation payment was 'consistent with decisions applied by GCC which I considered an appropriate comparator".

3 During the course of his employment with GERA, the Chief executive had already been rewarded for his achievements through the charity's performance management system. The chair of the charity told OSCR that "as [the Chief Executive] took on greater responsibilities and expanded the success of the company, this was reflected in his remuneration".

4 The charity trustees have not provided sufficient justification that this action was in the interests of the charity.

Conclusion

We consider that the actions of the charity trustees in this insatnce constituted misconduct in the administration of the charity. However, the payment has al;ready been made and the charity is in the final stages of being dissolved. We find this position wholly unsatisfactory but unfortunately we have no powers to recoup the funds for use in the charitable sector." 

Now the three charity trustees who made these decisions were all Labour members of Glasgow City Council - experienced Labour councillors, not people who were in any way 'wet behind the ears'.

I can only imagine how low paid workers fighting for equal pay from Glasgow City Council - feel about the way they have been treated - compared to this enormously generous treatment of an already highly paid senior official - effectively a gift of £232,708.  

Something's wrong - somewhere.