A British-based Muslim charity is appealing against the UK aid watchdog's decision to open a new investigation into its affairs.
Muslim Aid is accused of failing to introduce an action plan from a previous investigation which raised concerns over its lack of safeguards to ensure it was not funding terrorist groups.
A Charity Commission report in December 2018 said the way charitable funds were spent could not be accounted for and it placed Muslim Aid under a monitoring procedure.
In September the Commission launched another inquiry into the charity, which Muslim Aid is now appealing.
“I can confirm that the Commission opened an inquiry into Muslim Aid in September 2020, over concerns about the charity’s governance and management, including its failure to fully implement an action plan issued during a previous statutory inquiry,” the Commission told The National.
“The decision to open the inquiry has been appealed and is due to be considered by the Charity Tribunal.”
Previous investigations into Muslim Aid operations
This would be the Commission's third investigation into Muslim Aid.
Despite being under public scrutiny, its latest accounts from 2019 reveal it received more than £2.2 million ($3m) in government grants and contacts that year.
Muslim Aid confirmed it was appealing.
“We continue to actively co-operate with the commission and have asked for the decision to open an inquiry to be reconsidered,” the charity said.
The charity previously told The National it was “working hard to take steps to reverse the weak financial controls and management issues of the past”.
Muslim Aid employs more than 800 staff and its income in 2019 was £30.5m, with £33.1m expenditure.
After a five year investigation, a Commission report in 2018 revealed the charity had failed to carry out proper checks to ensure it was not handing out money to terrorist or extremist organisations.
Former members of the management and staff at Muslim Aid – a group operating across 70 countries – were accused of failing to complete basic due diligence checks to ensure partners and recipients of donations were not on the British government's banned lists.
The Commission concluded there was no evidence of money going to proscribed organisations but said that was down to “good fortune” rather than sound financial practice.
Regulators found Muslim Aid's Sudan branch had bought medicine from a company part-owned by the charity’s former country director, that staff in field offices were lent money without any documentary evidence of repayment and a failure to ensure its logo was not used by other groups to collect money in its name.
Muslim Aid had failed to properly check relevant channels to ensure organisations with which it was dealing were not on banned lists.
The 2018 inquiry report said it was “thereby exposing the charity to the risk of unwittingly funding a proscribed organisation ... this demonstrated a clear lack of prudence”.
Alleged links to Hamas
The findings led to an overhaul of management and a new chief executive, who left last year, was brought in.
The Commission first investigated Muslim Aid in 2010 over claims it was financing a group with alleged links to Hamas.
The regulator found no evidence that it had illegally funded a banned group but was unable to demonstrate conclusively that Muslim Aid followed “its own due diligence and monitoring procedures consistently”.
The charity was set up in the mid-1980s in response to famine in Africa and now runs emergency aid and development operations across Africa, Asia and Europe with 13 operational field offices.
It is involved in vital relief work in places such as Syria and Gaza, as well as helping the Rohingya victims of security forces in Myanmar.
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylinder turbo
Power: 258hp from 5,000-6,500rpm
Torque: 400Nm from 1,550-4,000rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 6.1L/100km
Price: from Dh362,500
On sale: now
In numbers: China in Dubai
The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000
Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000
Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent
ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
The tours
A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
More coverage from the Future Forum
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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China
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UAE
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Japan
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Norway
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Canada
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Milestones on the road to union
1970
October 26: Bahrain withdraws from a proposal to create a federation of nine with the seven Trucial States and Qatar.
December: Ahmed Al Suwaidi visits New York to discuss potential UN membership.
1971
March 1: Alex Douglas Hume, Conservative foreign secretary confirms that Britain will leave the Gulf and “strongly supports” the creation of a Union of Arab Emirates.
July 12: Historic meeting at which Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid make a binding agreement to create what will become the UAE.
July 18: It is announced that the UAE will be formed from six emirates, with a proposed constitution signed. RAK is not yet part of the agreement.
August 6: The fifth anniversary of Sheikh Zayed becoming Ruler of Abu Dhabi, with official celebrations deferred until later in the year.
August 15: Bahrain becomes independent.
September 3: Qatar becomes independent.
November 23-25: Meeting with Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid and senior British officials to fix December 2 as date of creation of the UAE.
November 29: At 5.30pm Iranian forces seize the Greater and Lesser Tunbs by force.
November 30: Despite a power sharing agreement, Tehran takes full control of Abu Musa.
November 31: UK officials visit all six participating Emirates to formally end the Trucial States treaties
December 2: 11am, Dubai. New Supreme Council formally elects Sheikh Zayed as President. Treaty of Friendship signed with the UK. 11.30am. Flag raising ceremony at Union House and Al Manhal Palace in Abu Dhabi witnessed by Sheikh Khalifa, then Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.
December 6: Arab League formally admits the UAE. The first British Ambassador presents his credentials to Sheikh Zayed.
December 9: UAE joins the United Nations.
MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW
Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
Rating: 3.5/5
The five pillars of Islam
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
