Article 25 is to embark on projects in post-earthquake Nepal
A serious £200,000 fraud at reconstruction and design charity Article 25 has left the organisation embroiled in a police investigation, facing insolvency and appealing to the industry for pledges worth £130,000 that would allow it to start trading again.
The charity, which is currently supporting community-led reconstruction projects in Haiti, Nepal and Myanmar, was alerted by its bank on 29 June to “irregular account activity”.
According to a statement on its website, the trustees then “uncovered what appears to be a systematic falsification of financial statements that have hidden multiple unapproved payments, which are believed to be in excess of £200,000.
“The office manager and book keeper, William Golding was absent on Monday June 29 and has been uncontactable since then.”
The trustees – who include Bob White of Rise Management Consulting, and three former RIBA presidents – decided that they had to call in administrators.
However, the charity can avoid liquidation and start to trade again if it raises £130,000 in pledges, with £110,000 of the target already reached.
Sunand Prasad: “bitter blow”
The charity has recently embarked on two major initiatives. In June, it was invited to advise on a major refurbishment of Yangon General Hospital in Myanmar, providing technical input on the physical refurbishment of the Victorian-era hospital building, originally built as a British army hospital.
And in April, following the 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Nepal, the charity launched its Nepal Reconstruction Appeal: Building Schools – Changing Lives, which is focused on allowing children to return to safe schools and resume their education.
When the earthquake struck, Article 25 was already preparing a programme of earthquake-resistant school construction to protect the country’s young people, and now hopes to deliver this programme as part of a far more extensive reconstruction programme.
Architect and PPRIBA Sunand Prasad, chair of the trustees, said: “What has happened is a particularly bitter blow as Article 25 is currently poised to work on some of the most important projects in its history.
“The current circumstance will be of concern to every person who has helped us raise money, our staff and volunteers who give their all in their shared endeavour to improve lives and the thousands of people whose potential access to basic accommodation for health or education is now in jeopardy.”
The CIOB has also worked in partnership with Article 25, with the winning photographs in its 2012 Art of Building photography competition being auctioned in aid of the charity.
