The Fat Cat meets the Elephant in the Room
- Trinity
- Jun 30, 2018
- 2 min read
11 Mar 18
The “elephant in the room” which we can’t get past is this.
For the unwelcome - if not unjustified - services of an Interim Manager appointed by the Charity Commission, a charity usually pays.
Now, for a charity’s funds, intended and expected to be used for charitable purposes, to be used to pay an Interim Manager isn’t perhaps too bad as long as the Interim Manager:
1. takes the charity to a better place
2. provides the charity with value for money
3. is accountable for their actions and their remuneration
We know that, usually, none of these things happen.
Often, an Interim Manager remains in place for years rather than months. Not infrequently the charity is closed down - eventually.
A better place? Hardly.
Value for money is unlikely, given this.
Oddly, the role is invariably filled by a lawyer - not an accountant or a retired charity CEO [someone understanding business or numbers or both] but a lawyer - and how many do you think are lining up for a post? It seems that the Commission like to give business to their fellow legal guys.
Although these Fat Cats are accountable - in theory - to the Charity Commission, in practice they call the shots.
After all, they have the power, the control, the keys, control of the website - and importantly, the charity’s bank account.
The same goes for their remuneration.
These Fat Cats can go on drinking milk from the charity’s saucer until there’s no more milk. And they do! And it’s full cream milk, too!
Sometimes, the Fat Cats only leave when the charity no longer has the funds to pay them. How strange and upsetting is that? Has anyone else read Bleak House?
Strangely, the Charity Commission seems unconcerned by the fact that an Interim Manager often extracts - for their own fees - a far greater amount than the amount they are sent in to investigate.
Well, why should the Commission care? Their role is not to care BUT to regulate at whatever cost!
The conflict of interests - being those of the Interim Managers themselves and of the Charity Commission - is one of those elephants in the room… everyone seems to be pretending it isn’t actually there.
Trinity
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