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Charity Commission concludes Garden Bridge project was a ‘failure for charity’

Melanie May | 10 April 2019 | News

The Garden Bridge project was a ‘failure for charity’ that risks undermining public trust, the Charity Commission has said in its concluding report on the Garden Bridge Trust.
In the report, it is critical of the charity’s approach to transparency and accountability, and sets out wider lessons for charities, the Commission itself and those making public policy decisions that involve charities. However, it states that the trustees of the charity fulfilled their legal duties in their decision making and that the charity was not mismanaged.
The report on the Garden Bridge Trust acknowledges that over £50m of public funds were spent by a charity without producing demonstrable public benefit, and concludes that this represents “a failure for charity” which risks undermining public trust.
The report sets out a number of lessons from the case, including:

The regulator says it will engage with those seeking to establish charity wholly or mainly to deliver a publicly funded project to ensure they understand the consequences and responsibilities that follow, including the need to meet the public’s expectations around transparency and financial stewardship.
Baroness Stowell, Chair of the Charity Commission, commented:

“Londoners and taxpayers will legitimately feel angry and let down by the waste of millions of pounds of public money on a charitable project that was not delivered. I understand that anger and am clear that this represents a failure for charity that risks undermining public confidence in charities generally.
“While the charity was not mismanaged, the public would also expect, as I do, that the right lessons are learnt from this case, so that we don’t see a similar failure arising in future.”

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However, the Commission’s conclusion met with criticism from the sector on social media, including from the Institute of Fundraising’s Daniel Fluskey, and DSC’s Debra Allcock Tyler who pointed to the differences between this project and the work and operations of other charities, while the lack of sanctions for the Trustees was also highlighted:
 


https://twitter.com/peterwalker99/status/1115633733091110912
 
The full report is available on gov.uk.
 

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