Charities must be made accountable

WHEN we make the decision to donate to a charity – any charity – it is imperative that we can trust that our hard-earned money will be used for what any charitable donation should be used for – helping those in need. That, after all, is any charity’s raison d’être. If people were not in need, there would be no necessity for their own existence.

Sadly, in this country, we have learned in the past, and nowhere more pointedly in recent years than with the charity Console, that trust can be all too easily misplaced.

In the light of this week’s revelations in relation to a number of HSE audits – including the damning conclusions relating to National Maternity Hospital Master Rhona Mahony’s top-up salary – it is shocking to witness that a number of our charitable organisations continue to use funds, not to help those in need, but, effectively, to help themselves.

Two days ago came the news that, within St John of God, there were further top-ups to those first uncovered last year by our sister newspaper, the Irish Mail on Sunday. The audit also brought to light that some €300,000 had been claimed for travel, and that retirement gifts, clothes, and vouchers were all claimed as legitimate expenses.

When it came to another charity, the Catholic Institute for Deaf People, the audit of that organisation concluded that its financial controls were ‘inadequate’. Something of an understatement when you see that almost €29,000 was paid for gifts, including whiskey and Michelin-restaurant dining.

Yet more cavalier spending came to light yesterday in relation to the Irish Wheelchair Association and the Alzheimer Society. Restaurants, insurance, car allowances and large salaries all feature prominently.

Labour party leader Brendan Howlin has called for an overhaul of the entire charity sector and it is indeed patently obvious that they must be made more accountable to the State that helps to fund them.

Clearly, the HSE audits show that they remain far from accountable, raising, as they do, all manner of questions in relation to how these bodies are conducting their operations.

We cannot afford further loss of trust. Nor can we tolerate such flagrant spending by these institutions.

We need proper oversight and full accountability. And we need it now.