The trustees of a Islamic charity were responsible for mismanagement after they failed to complete a social media policy before the organisation was embroiled in a social media storm, the regulator has concluded. 

The Charity Commission has published its report about its inquiry into Dar ul Uloom Islamia Rizwia (Bralawai), which runs the Central Jamia Mosque Ghamkol Sharif and an education centre in Small Heath, Birmingham. 

The regulator opened a statutory inquiry into the charity in November 2021 because of concerns about safeguarding, accounting and the use of social media by some trustees and staff. 

A report into the inquiry, published yesterday, says the charity’s failure to complete a draft social media policy “contributed to the issuing of multiple inappropriate social media posts by trustees and staff which resulted in the charity receiving negative media attention”.

It says: “The commission considered this as part of its inquiry and determined the trustees’ failure to have oversight or appropriately manage risks amounted to misconduct and/or mismanagement.”

It says the posts had been deleted and the charity had apologised at the time.

The regulator opened a compliance case into the charity in 2019 because of a safeguarding incident at the charity’s education centre. 

The commission found the charity had no safeguarding policies or procedures in place for the centre at the time of the incident. 

The education centre was temporarily closed after the incident and the charity was told by the regulator to remedy the issues, which resulted in the case being closed. 

But in November 2021, a monitoring inspection of the charity by the commission revealed it had failed to properly implement the safeguarding policies. 

It also found the charity had been late with its accounts for the two previous years and those accounts had been qualified by the auditor and there were concerns about the charity’s handling of social media posts made by trustees and staff. 

The report says that since the opening of the inquiry, trustees have taken “a number of positive steps to address the failures and weaknesses in the charity’s governance”. 

It says: “The trustees have also shown a willingness to take on board regulatory advice and guidance provided by the commission.”

But the report says trustees tried to block the appointment of an interim manager to the charity in 2022 by taking a case to the charity tribunal, which was later withdrawn. 

The regulator was also concerned about unmanaged conflicts of interest between the charity and two funeral director companies. 

It found that two of the directors of those companies were trustees of the charity and said that income belonging to one of the companies was being stored in the charity’s safe. 

The reports says that at the time, the only person who had access to the charity’s safe was a trustee who was also the director of one of those companies, which the regulator concluded was a conflict of interest. 

The commission recommended the company be made a trading subsidiary of the charity. 

The report criticises trustees because it says the charity has not yet implemented this recommendation, although it has introduced new controls over access to the safe.