A charitable trust set up to promote animal conservation through the now-closed Fife Animal Park has been criticised by the industry watchdog which found the board of trustees “not fit for purpose”.
The charity regulator ruled the overall governance of the charity Fife Animal Trust was “poor” and trustees were guilty of misconduct after trying to sell the charity’s assets including the animals it looked after.
It concluded the charity had not been run independently from the commercial business owned by one of the trustees and the charity’s manager also operated from the animal park.
Its investigation also concluded the board “lacked the necessary skills and experience to run the charity properly” and financial record keeping was “very poor”.
However, trustees will not be banned from becoming trustees again, the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) has said.
OSCR opened an inquiry into the charity after it became aware the charity’s assets, including the animals, were included in the sale schedule for Fife Animal Park, a commercial business which belonged to one of the charity’s trustees.
The regulator issued the charity with a direction notice preventing it from selling its charity assets while it carried out an investigation.
Fife Animal Trust was set up in October 2011 and the charity’s manager and one of the three trustees owned the land the charity operated from, as well as a commercial business operating from the same place.
The inquiry report, which described the board of trustees as “not fit for purpose”, highlights poor financial record keeping by the charity and a failure to manage conflicts of interest.
Fife Council took possession of the charity’s animals in February under Section 32 of the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006.
All of the animals have now been rehomed.