Margaret Canning
Today at 07:30
Directors at Green Pastures in Ballymena moved £22.7m into coffers for general spending while a probe was under way into governance at the evangelical church, the Belfast Telegraph can reveal.
The transfer of sums from ‘restricted’ into ‘unrestricted’ funds by charity trustees is lawful.
The Green Pastures transaction took place while the church, founded by ex-Wrightbus owner Jeff Wright, was under a continuing investigation by the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland.
In the year before the transfer took place, the church’s unrestricted funds were in the red to the tune of £192,834.
Over a six-year period to around 2017, the church had benefited from lawful donations of up to £15m from Cornerstone Group, the parent company of bus manufacturer Wrightbus, also in Ballymena.
Wrightbus went into administration in 2019 but was sold to new owners shortly afterwards.
The directors of the limited company behind the church, also its trustees, detailed the transfer in accounts for the year ending August 2023 published at Companies House in June.
Mr Wright is no longer a director of the limited company as he is facing directors’ disqualification proceedings over the collapse of Wrightbus.
The probe by the charity watchdog is expected to conclude in September, after starting in May 2022.
The restricted funds appear, from a note in the accounts, to have been raised to build Green Pastures’ ‘megachurch’ outside Ballymena.
One expert on the charitable sector, who did not wish to be named, said best practice would suggest that the watchdog’s permission would be sought for the transfer of the £22.7m.
But he said that the note in the financial statements did mean that the trustees were being transparent.
He said: “‘Restricted funds is a term used in the not-for profit sector where donations and fundraising has been undertaken for a specific purpose linked to the organisation’s charitable activities.
“Unrestricted funds would include a legacy or donation where someone says: ‘We’ll leave it up to discretion of trustees to spend the money whatever way they feel is appropriate for the overall charitable purposes.’
“The trustees are likely thinking that the property has now been built, so that money can now be identified in the accounts as unrestricted.
“The £22.7m is an exceptional amount of money. The conversion of funds from restricted to unrestricted wouldn’t be unusual in the third sector, but because of the scale of it, I would have been looking for Charity Commission approval for such activity, and an explanation.”
Green Pastures Church has been asked by the Belfast Telegraph if it sought Charity Commission permission for the movement of the funds, and what the reason was for the movement.
Stevenson and Wilson in Ballymena, the auditors of Green Pastures Church, have also been asked if Charity Commission permission was sought.
According to the accounts, restricted funds went from £22.9m to £199,933 over the year to August 2023. Unrestricted funds went from minus £192,834 to £22.6m.
A note in the accounts said: “Unrestricted funds are spent or applied at the discretion of the trustees to further any of the charity’s purposes.
“Unrestricted funds may be used to supplement expenditure made from restricted funds.
“The church property and site were funded through specific donations and fundraisers and, as such, were held in a restricted fund. The terms of the gift place no requirement for the charity to hold the property for a specific purpose on an ongoing basis.
“Following practical completion of the property, the trustees consider that the terms of the gifts have been met and therefore the charity is permitted to use the asset on an unrestricted basis for any charitable purpose.”
Asked if permission for the transfer had been sought, the Charity Commission said: “We cannot comment or speculate on a live case.
“However, more generally, a charity may need the express permission from the Charity Commission to move restricted funds into unrestricted funds.
“However, this would be dependent on a number of factors. For example, the terms of the fundraising and/or whether the funds were temporarily or permanently restricted (for example, temporarily restricted funds might be bound until a project is completed or the time limit for using the funds expires).”
Asked again if express permission had been sought in this case, the watchdog said: “As previously highlighted, permission from the commission would not necessarily be required, as that would be dependent on a number of factors.
“We are unable to provide anything further at this time as the investigation remains open.”
The accounts also show that the average number of employees at the church fell from 19 to seven over the year to the end of August. There were no employees in receipt of employee benefits of over £30,000.
According to the financial statements, total charity funds had gone from £22.7m to £22.8m over the year to August 2023. Its fixed assets were steady at £23m, though current assets had dropped from £512,827 to £227,406.
Cash at the church’s bank account declined from £131,979 to £40,897. Cash at bank for the Project Nehemiah account, the name given to fundraising for the new church building, dropped from £89,186 to £1,760.
Cash at bank for other ministry accounts totalled £129,835, which was up from £20,987.
The amount it owed its creditors within one year was well down, from £343,121 to £91,392.
On July 11, the Charity Commission told the Belfast Telegraph that it anticipated conclusion of the case in eight weeks’ time.
Asked about the length of time which has passed since investigation began, the Charity Commission said: “The length of a charity investigation varies with each case and a concern may take some time to investigate.
“While the commission endeavours to deal with all concerns as quickly as possible, the timescale is dependent on a number of different factors, such as how complex a case is, what risk there is to the charity’s assets or beneficiaries, the commission’s overall investigatory workload and available resources at a given time, whether other regulators or statutory bodies are involved, or if the issues investigated merit ongoing monitoring before a final assessment.”
In May 2022, the Charity Commission announced it had started an investigation into the church after a “concern” had been raised.
It said it had become aware of some “internal governance issues”.
Eight members of its executive committee resigned at that point and Mr Wright stepped down as the church’s pastor, though he later resumed the role.
by Browns_right_foot
2 comments
A shower of cults.
It was just resting in the account….?