
Monitoring and compliance guidance
The Charity Commission for Northern Ireland has statutory objectives to ensure trustees comply with their legal obligations in managing charities and to increase public trust and confidence in charities. We also have a statutory function to identify and investigate apparent misconduct or mismanagement in the administration charities, and to take remedial or protective action.
We will do this in a number of ways through our compliance work, which may lead to us carrying out investigations or monitoring charities.
How we ensure charities comply with their legal requirements
The Commission has produced guidance to support charity trustees to comply with their legal obligations and best practice requirements. It provides information on how the Commission monitors and identifies non-compliance, and the consequences for charity trustees where non-compliance is identified.
The guidance also includes a range of examples to illustrate information provided; it is important to note that these examples are not exhaustive and that charities may wish to seek professional advice if they are uncertain regarding their obligations.
In carrying out assessments and investigations we will work, where appropriate, with other regulators, law enforcement agencies and other government departments. We will also raise awareness of the results of this work for the benefit of the wider sector.
For more information on the action we may take to ensure charities comply with their legal requirements, please use the links below:
Assessing concerns about charities
Where we investigate charities
Working with other agencies, regulators and departments
When we can help resolve internal conflicts in a charity
Charities funding projects in the UK and overseas
Charity trustees are legally responsible for safeguarding their charity, its funds, property and beneficiaries. They must ensure that charitable funds are properly used, adequately protected, and not misused for financial crime, terrorist or other criminal purposes. Where charities give money to partners and beneficiaries especially large amounts of money or in high risk situations, it's vital they take appropriate steps to verify that charity funds or property reach their proper destinations and are used as the charity intended.
The Charity Commission for England and Wales (CCEW) has produced the following risk management tools which may help charity trustees to effectively manage risk and protect their charity from harm. Chapter two of CCEW’s Compliance toolkit – Due diligence and Monitoring the end use of funds includes a:
- risk assessment checklist (highlighting key issues you might want to think about) and
- a risk assessment matrix (assesses likelihood, impact and potential controls)