A True and Fair View? We think not

Trinity
Jul 3, 2018
3 min read

3 Jul 18

Oh, dearie, dearie me. The Charity Commission has done it again.

This time it was accountants, at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales,

who were treated to the same recorded message.

We have Civil Society to thank for sharing the Commission's latest gift to the charity sector.

Now, Andrew Purkis has already made some really good points about surveys into public views of the charity sector. However, on hearing that the Charity Commission Chief Executive, Helen Stephenson, has said:

"the public trusts charities less than the man or woman on the street” ,

we just HAD to respond.

First off, Helen Stephenson's recent address to the troops took place right at the front line. In order to make her rallying call, Major Stephenson dug in and joined the men in the trenches.

Trouble is, her statement to the accountants' conference last week was a re-run of the statement made before by Helen's colleague Baroness Stowell ["ChariTina'] .

It is like a stuck record; a statement that the "leaders" of the Charity Commission keep on repeating.

We suppose they will keep repeating it until we all, hopefully, eventually get their message.

As when ChariTina made it previously, Helen's statement was made without any perceived need to give audit evidence.

Such evidence - centred on the apparent man and woman in the street - might perhaps include, for example:

That section of the public she was actually talking about?

How many people took part in that survey? [ do you see those people now, Helen?}

Which particular street? [one down your way perhaps Helen - or was it down ours?]

What standard level of trust does the public hold in those oiks on the street anyway?

- and that probably also varies from street to street - depending!!!

More important questions face us, however. Such as:

WHY does the Charity Commission seek - and keep seeking - confirmation [ or is it reassurance maybe? ] that the public's trust in charities is falling?

Incidentally - Charity income is on the up - by £4b to £75b according to the Charity Commission's own reports.

Have your actually read your predecessor's Annual Report for 2016/17, Helen?

WHY is there a glaring discord between the Charity Commission's

use of public trust in charities as an indicator of the Commission's own performance

and what Helen Stephenson and ChariTina keep saying?

WHAT questions were asked in that "survey" Helen Stephenson refers to, to elicit such an - alleged - response?

Helen, as a CEO you must surely know this -

Your sweeping statement to a room full of chartered accountants would NOT pass the audit !

Last thing on this topic - Your biannual survey, Helen, falls short.

Most YouGov polls are based on 2000 respondents - not the 1000 you commissioned.

Must have been a quiet street, we suppose !

Next topic:

Helen Stephenson also said she was disappointed that only one in four auditors alerted the Commission to matters of material significance.

What on earth is Helen suggesting here, do you think?

She probably means that her team needs to have ALL qualified reports flagged up to them.

Well that is all very possible in our digital world Helen. To help, it's just a tick box thing.

Reports could be classified : Clean / Not Clean : Qualified / Not Qualified.

In Commission-World, it seems the situation is improving when the number of reports of matters of material significance in a financial year increases to 194, from 17 in the previous year.

How revealing!

So, basically, more BAD reports is GOOD.

We like that one Helen. [George Orwell, we think, would like it too]

We're going to lie down now in a darkened room to get over this drivel.

Pencils up noses, plus some mutters of "Wibble, Wibble" may be heard.

We may be down for some time!

Trinity

#charitycommission #helenstephenson #iceaw #accountants #auditors #charity #charities #baronessstowell #charitina