A charity set up by a Scottish MP was placed under investigation after its repeated failure to explain its low spending raised fears it was “failing to apply funds for charitable purposes”.
Files released under freedom of information show the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) tried in vain for almost a year to get answers from the Scottish Asian Women’s Association (SAWA), and grew concerned its trustees may have breached their “legal duties”.
SAWA was founded and chaired for three years by solicitor Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, the SNP MP for Ochil and South Perthshire, with the aim of promoting “religious and racial harmony”.
However its launch at taxpayers’ expense in 2012, with Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon present, fuelled claims it was chiefly a publicity vehicle for Ms Ahmed-Sheikh’s political career.
OSCR recently ended its investigation into SAWA without taking action, but has given “recommendations to support the charity going forward”.
The Herald revealed last month how SAWA spent only 13.2 per cent of its £25,027 income while Ms Ahmed-Sheikh was chairwoman, with just £700, or 2.8 per cent, donated to good causes.
Ms Ahmed-Sheikh, 45, a former Labour activist and Conservative candidate who is close to Mr Salmond, resigned from SAWA immediately after her election last May.
However official OSCR documents show the regulator first began asking SAWA to explain its low spending levels in early 2015, while she was still involved.
OSCR sought information from Ms Ahmed-Sheikh in February, March, September and November last year, and also asked SAWA’s accountant for explanations four times.
“Can you please explain why there is this low level of expenditure within the charity?” said an OSCR email to Ms Ahmed-Sheikh last March.
One OSCR “trigger” for querying a charity’s spending is if it falls below 67 per cent of income.
Despite SAWA’s accountant promising “a reply in due course”, no answers were forthcoming.
In September, OSCR emailed the accountant and Ms Ahmed-Sheikh requesting an explanation within seven days, adding: “We are now concerned that the charity trustees are failing to apply funds for charitable purposes.”
In November, OSCR emailed the pair again, saying: “Due to the non response from the charity, we are now concerned that the charity trustees are not meeting their legal duties as trustees that are laid out in the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005.”
In December, two weeks before having to file its 2014/15 accounts, SAWA made its first ever big donations, giving £11,000 to good causes at an invite-only ‘Ice Party’ in a Glasgow bar.
However on January this year 21, OSCR wrote again to SAWA, saying that “having reviewed the accounts, other areas of concern have come to our attention”.
Asking for details of SAWA’s current activity and plans for the coming year, the regulator said it had “determined that further inquiry is appropriate to gain assurances that the charity trustees are fulfilling their duties [under the 2005 Act]”.
SAWA’s website, which included numerous pictures of Mr Salmond and Ms Sturgeon with Ms Ahmed-Sheikh, has gone offline since the issues surrounding donations were raised.
Labour MSP Jackie Baillie said: “This is a serious development. Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh should come clean on why she was dodging questions from OSCR for more than a year.”
SAWA is now in the hands of Sitara Kausar, 26, a solicitor at Ms Ahmed-Sheikh’s former law firm, Hamilton Burns in Glasgow, and three other trustees appointed since May 2015.
Ms Kausar said: “OSCR have confirmed with our Trustees that they have not identified any matters that warrant any action and so have now closed their file.”
Ms Ahmed-Sheikh said: “OSCR have now concluded their enquiries and have closed their file.”
An OSCR spokeswoman said: “I can confirm the investigation is closed. Although we did not identify any matters that warranted any action at this time, recommendations to support the charity going forward were given.”
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