Wake up charity chiefs, it's time to save the 198

Marc Wadsworth

For weeks staff at a south London art gallery have been waging a war against each other which threatens its survival, as reported by this website.

Yet the charity bosses in charge have done nothing to step in and end hostilities. So, today, The-Latest is making the unprecedented move of naming and shaming the trustees of the 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning gallery on the 'frontline' of Britain's Black community at Brixton, south London.

Before doing this public service to make the dithering, Emperor Nero-like charity chiefs properly accountable for the  £264,406 of taxpayers money they get a year for the gallery, here are a few alarming points about the appalling lack of action by them which could put in jail anyone involved who is guilty of a crime. The-Latest has gone to the trouble of contacting the majority of the seven trustees and found that most of them were:

• not aware that the gallery's curator Predrag Pajdic was suspended on September 7 in their name
• not aware of serious allegations of mismanagement and sleaze levelled against the director of 198 Lucy Davies and her husband Audley Campbell, who is employed as head of special projects at the gallery
• not aware that the current Crime and Punishment exhibition, due to run from September 4 to October 11, has been shut by Davies
• not aware that artists have withdrawn their work and this threatens future exhibitions

The-Latest has provided damning video evidence http://www.the-latest.com/caught-on-camera-shocking-truth-about-crisis-at-art-gallery of the row that threatens to close an important community resource which opened as a Black art gallery more than 20 years ago. We have also sent 17 probing question to the key players http://www.the-latest.com/urgent-questions-art-gallery-at-war-chief-must-answer. But neither chair of the trustees Clarence Thompson, Sam Uwadiae, the trustee who is effectively acting as boss, nor Lucy Davies have given answers, as a result of the emails we have sent them in the last 48 hours, in the face of huge public concern. Their silence is criminal.

Perhaps they should be reminded that English law gives the Charity Commission, which governs them, sweeping powers to launch a searching investigation and:

• seize all relevant documents, including the paper trail of finances
• fire trustees who cannot be found or take no action
• remove staff
• appoint new trustees
• take control of the charity
• call in fraud squad police

Offences under charity law carry prison terms of up to two years behind bars. The-Latest has three plastic bags full of shredded documents from the gallery that we intend to hand over to the authorities.

What the Charities Act 1993 says:

Section 8 - General power to institute inquiries

(1) The (Charity) Commissioners may from time to time institute inquiries with regard to charities or a particular charity or class of charities, either generally or for particular purposes, but no such inquiry shall extend to any exempt charity.

(2) The Commissioners may either conduct such an inquiry themselves or appoint a person to conduct it and make a report to them.

(3) For the purposes of any such inquiry the Commissioners, or a person appointed by them to conduct it, may direct any person (subject to the provisions of this section) -

(a) to furnish accounts and statements in writing with respect to any matter in question at the inquiry, being a matter on which he has or can reasonably obtain information, or to return answers in writing to any questions or inquiries addressed to him on any such matter, and to verify any such accounts, statements or answers by statutory declaration;

(b) to furnish copies of documents in his custody or under his control which relate to any matter in question at the inquiry, and to verify any such copies by statutory declaration;


Section 11 - Supply of false or misleading information to Commissioners, etc

(1) Any person who knowingly or recklessly provides the Commissioners with information which is false or misleading in a material particular shall be guilty of an offence if the information -

a) is provided in purported compliance with a requirement imposed by or under this Act; orb) is provided otherwise than as mentioned in paragraph (a) above but in circumstances in which the person providing the information intends, or could reasonably be expected to know, that it would be used by the Commissioners for the purpose of discharging their functions under this Act.

(2) Any person who wilfully alters, suppresses, conceals or destroys any document which he is or is liable to be required, by or under this Act, to produce to the Commissioners shall be guilty of an offence.

(3) Any person guilty of an offence under this section shall be liable -

(a) on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum ( £5,000);

(b) on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or to a fine, or both.

Section 18 - Power to act for protection of charities. Investigations

(1) Where, at any time after they have instituted an inquiry under section 8 above with respect to any charity, the Commissioners are satisfied -

(a) that there is or has been any misconduct or mismanagement in the administration of the charity; or

(b) that it is necessary or desirable to act for the purpose of protecting the property of the charity or securing a proper application for the purposes of the charity of that property or of property coming to the charity,

the Commissioners may of their own motion do one or more of the following things -

(i) by order suspend any trustee, charity trustee, officer, agent or employee of the charity from the exercise of his office or employment pending consideration being given to his removal (whether under this section or otherwise);

(ii) by order appoint such number of additional charity trustees as they consider necessary for the proper administration of the charity;

(iii) by order vest any property held by or in trust for the charity in the official custodian, or require the persons in whom any such property is vested to transfer it to him, or appoint any person to transfer any such property to him;

(iv) order any person who holds any property on behalf of the charity, or of any trustee for it, not to part with the property without the approval of the Commissioners;

(v) order any debtor of the charity not to make any payment in or towards the discharge of his liability to the charity without the approval of the Commissioners;

(vi) by order restrict (notwithstanding anything in the trusts of the charity) the transactions which may be entered into, or the nature or amount of the payments which may be made, in the administration of the charity without the approval of the Commissioners;

(vii) by order appoint (in accordance with section 19 below) a receiver and manager in respect of the property and affairs of the charity.

(2) Where, at any time after they have instituted an inquiry under section 8 above with respect to any charity, the Commissioners are satisfied -

(a) that there is or has been any misconduct or mismanagement in the administration of the charity; and

(b) that it is necessary or desirable to act for the purpose of protecting the property of the charity or securing a proper application for the purposes of the charity of that property or of property coming to the charity,

the Commissioners may of their own motion do either or both of the following things -

(i) by order remove any trustee, charity trustee, officer, agent or employee of the charity who has been responsible for or privy to the misconduct or mismanagement or has by his conduct contributed to it or facilitated it;

Section 18 - Power to act for the protection of charities. Fire trustees

(4) The Commissioners may also remove a charity trustee by order made of their own motion -

(a) where, within the last five years, the trustee -

(i) having previously been adjudged bankrupt or had his estate sequestrated, has been discharged, or

(ii) having previously made a composition or arrangement with, or granted a trust deed for, his creditors, has been discharged in respect of it;

(b) where the trustee is a corporation in liquidation;

(c) where the trustee is incapable of acting by reason of mental disorder within the meaning of the [1983 c. 20.] Mental Health Act 1983;

(d) where the trustee has not acted, and will not declare his willingness or unwillingness to act;

(e) where the trustee is outside England and Wales or cannot be found or does not act, and his absence or failure to act impedes the proper administration of the charity.