A group of families have called for an urgent inquiry into a charity caring for their highly vulnerable disabled relatives which is under threat of closure after running up debts of £1.6m in unpaid taxes and paying £1m to one of its own trustees.
Earlier this month, a judge gave the charity, William Blake House, just weeks to pay off its debts to HMRC or face a winding up order. The charity’s accounts show auditors have routinely questioned whether it is a viable business.
The families say the wellbeing of residents is in jeopardy and public money is at risk. They have questioned why the charity has paid more than £800,000 in strategy fees and £240,000 in consultancy fees to a company owned by the charity’s chair, despite its deteriorating finances.
It’s popssible to think, to posit, that there could be an amount of self-dealing there that should be looked at. Worth finding out perhaps?
the charity has paid Van Kruger Consulting, a company solely owned by William Blake House’s chair, Bushra Hamid,