A British charity that provides financial support and advice to Grail Trust India, a charity that looks after disadvantaged children around the town of Valliyoor, in Tamil Nadu made “serious governance failures” in the way in which it dealt with allegations of child abuse, according to Britain’s charity regulator.
In a report published on Tuesday, the Charity Commission, which is responsible for the oversight of charities in England and Wales, was critical of the way in which the Grail Trust (UK) responded to the initial allegations of abuse, as well as the safeguards it had in place relating to Grail Trust India.
The trust had initially failed to act impartially, not reporting the allegations either to the commission or the British police, and describing them as “malicious and unsubstantiated,” the commission said, which was an ‘inadequate” response. “Incidents of abuse against vulnerable beneficiaries are wholly unacceptable. Charities trustees risk being in breach of their duties and responsibilities if they fail to address such incidents properly and act appropriately.”
The commission set up its inquiry in December 2011, after made aware of the allegations in August that year. The allegation related to a now closed children’s home run by Grail Trust India (it now just runs an outreach programme for around 100 children). The courts are yet to reach a conclusion.
The commission was also critical of the UK trustees’ initial attempt to distance itself from the situation, arguing that as beneficiaries were not based in the UK it was not responsible for safeguarding procedures of GTI, for whom Indian state guidelines and safeguards applied. The charity commission rejected this defence, noting a clear link between the UK-based charity and GTI. “They share the same name and the founder of Grail Trust UK was also the founder of GTI and was responsible for most of the fundraising, which almost all came from the U.K.”
“Trustees have a responsibility when funding activities of partners, where they involve vulnerable beneficiaries, to comply with their duty of care and duty of prudence, assess the risks and ensure they have reasonable assurance, not only that the partner is capable of delivering the proposed activities or services, but also that they have appropriate systems of control in place.”
“The trustees did not discharge their legal duties and responsibilities and there has been misconduct and mismanagement in the administration of the charity,” it concluded.
Gail Trust’s response
In a response to the report, the Grail Trust (UK) Trustees said they had helped the commission with their inquiries, and accepted it had reached its conclusions about the safeguarding issues and the handling of allegations against the charity’s former director.
“We are very sorry, indeed, on behalf of the charity that we seek to serve, the welfare of children in Tamil Nadu, that these criticisms have been made of us,” they said, adding that an action plan and new safeguarding policies had been introduced.
“We are a very different charity to where we were in 2011 when the allegation, still unproven, was made…The relief of poverty and the promotion of education are our two objectives, and we continue to fund-raise and work with our Indian partner…to fulfil these objectives.”
