Many councils have, but Harrow council has no known formal guidelines for choosing the mayor’s charity or ensuring transparency of Harrow’s Charity Fund, a charity (number 219034). This has serious implications.
It is doubtful whether the council officers established the soundness of this mayor’s chosen charity as required.
Despite a requirement, Harrow mayor’s charity number on his webpage as well as on his charity’s newly formed London’s Community Kitchen website did not appear for seven months after the mayor was in office, and appeared only after our extensive intervention.
As far as we see, the accounts of Mayor of Harrow’s Charity Fund have never been made publicly available – a council failure to monitor that its charity trust is fulfilling all their legal responsibilities.
“Charities with an income of £25,000 or less are not required to file their annual report and accounts with us when they complete their annual returns. They must still make them publicly available, for example by putting them on their website” informs the charity commission.
Therefore, it is appropriate to ask the charity to provide the last five years accounts so that the public could see how the charity fund has been used.
On a wider note, perhaps the council could closely monitor the work of the Harrow mayor office, including transparency.
It is doubtful whether the council officers established the soundness of this mayor’s chosen charity as required.
Despite a requirement, Harrow mayor’s charity number on his webpage as well as on his charity’s newly formed London’s Community Kitchen website did not appear for seven months after the mayor was in office, and appeared only after our extensive intervention.
As far as we see, the accounts of Mayor of Harrow’s Charity Fund have never been made publicly available – a council failure to monitor that its charity trust is fulfilling all their legal responsibilities.
“Charities with an income of £25,000 or less are not required to file their annual report and accounts with us when they complete their annual returns. They must still make them publicly available, for example by putting them on their website” informs the charity commission.
Therefore, it is appropriate to ask the charity to provide the last five years accounts so that the public could see how the charity fund has been used.
On a wider note, perhaps the council could closely monitor the work of the Harrow mayor office, including transparency.
Harrow Monitoring Group 