CAFOD, the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development, was the fastest of
the top 100 largest charities to file its accounts last year, according
to a report from the Charity Commission.
Under Charity Law, financial accounts must be filed within ten months
of the financial year end but CAFOD sent its audited accounts to the
Commission within only three months.
Over one in ten of the top 100 charities failed to file accounts within
the legal deadline and over half took more than eight months. The
average amount of time taken by FTSE 100 companies is five and a half
months.
Chief Executive of the Charities Commission Andrew Hind said: "We
congratulate CAFOD on being the fastest of the 100 largest charities to
file accounts last year. This is an excellent example to other leaders
in the sector."
Mr Hind explained the importance of filing accounts on time: "The
timely submission of accounts says a great deal about how your charity
is run.
Demonstrating your efficiency in this way may help you access funding
and will help you avoid criticism from those whose views you care
about."
CAFOD’s Manager in the Clifton Diocese Tony Vassallo said: "This is a
proud achievement for CAFOD's finance department and one which is very
important to CAFOD as a whole.
“To be recognised as the best in the field by the Charities Commission
has given a huge boost to our finance staff, always the unsung backroom
people but who are critical to the success of an effective and
efficient charity.
"One of CAFOD's core values is good stewardship of resources and an
important part of that is ensuring that our accounting and finance
systems are both solid and transparent. The majority of CAFOD's funding
comes from individuals, often making personal sacrifices to support our
work, so it is our duty to ensure that our supporters have confidence
in us to be good stewards of those donations.
"So we will not rest on our laurels but will continue to work on improving all our systems and accountability to supporters."
Fiona Callister
Useful URL :
http://www.cafod.org.uk