Expenses madness spreads to charity sector

The Charity world has gone potty.

As many of you will know I am the CEO of a charity. The charity sector does many things well but is struggling under the increasing requirements of bureaucracy that both the sector and the Government is placing on them. The narrative goes something like this.....

"We want the third sector (new Labour speak for charities) to take on more Government contracts rather than rely on grant income and we will therefore ensure there is a form of competitive tendering process called commissioning. However we, the Government, are very worried that if we do this will the third sector be up to it? What we will therefore do is increase the level of bureaucracy and form filing that is required so that instead of freeing the third sector to do what it does incredibly well and for very reasonable costs we will smother them in new costs and checks because quite frankly, we don't trust them."

The consequence of all this is a plethora of forms and new regulations that Charities need to comply with to demonstrate they are charitable. The effect is a level of cost and disclosure that goes way beyond anything a private company would need to produce. The charity I run has very little grant income and secures most of its income from operating private sector contracts and uses the income to provide information services, but we must still comply with the requirements.

Meantime, many of the representative organisations that should be doing more to protect the sector just turn over and lie there as they have their tummies tickled by Government.

Once such organisation is the National Council for Voluntary Organisations which has today announced it wants to set up a committee to produce guidance on how Charities should handle the issue of publishing CEO's expenses.

This is utter madness. What the hell has what a CEO claims got to do with anyone apart from the Board of Trustees who employ him?

I do wonder why the devil NCVO exists if this is what they are going to waste their time, and members money, on.

Are they really attempting to strangle the sector by burying it in red tape? Steve Bubb, CEO at ACEVO (another voluntary sector umbrella organisation for CEO's, is quite right to stand up to this meddling and interfering nonsense.

The only reason this has arisen is because of the problems with Parliamentary expenses in so far as they relate to second homes. IF a Trustee board wishes to grant a second homes allowance to a CEO then that is a matter for them because unlike Parliament the Trustees are the Governors of the charity.

It is time to get real and start doing some work rather than trying to find another ridiculous piece of guidance for the sector to have to implement!