• The Charity Commission does not consider it has any regulatory role when UK charities behave badly, illegally or perpetrate abuse when working overseas.
• The Charity Commission does absolutely nothing to prevent abuse and offers no support or advice to NGO’s in other countries (and to be very frank we mean developing countries) if a UK charity exploits, bullies or abuses them.
• That the Charity Commissions only advice and regulatory role with regard to overseas working is to inform charities to protect their money from unscrupulous foreigners and to make sure their money isn’t given to a terrorist cell.
• The Charity Commission does not know what charities are doing overseas and it does not know how much money is donated for overseas work or how much is then sent overseas.
• The Charity Commission has no idea whether UK charities can legally work in the countries they say they are working in, they just rely on the charities to be honest about it.
• The Charity Commission believes the role of an overseas partner NGO working with a UK charity is only to work FOR a UK Charity This does not appear in their guidance and does not apply to UK partners, of course.
• If an overseas NGO will not follow the orders of a UK charity (even if doing so breaks their country’s laws) the Charity Commission agrees that it is perfectly acceptable for a UK charity to stop the funding and terminate the partnership immediately and without warning.
• The Charity Commission does not check the laws of the country a UK charity works in, if this is raised as a complaint the response of the commission is to ask the charity if it is true. The Charity Commission do not check the law and if the UK charity says they can work in the country legally the Charity Commission believes the charity and there is no further enquiry.
• All the big charities donate grants to smaller UK charities who say they are working overseas, particularly animal welfare organisations. The big charities hand over money in grants, money that we have donated to them. The big charities believe their fellow UK charity when it informs them they have used the grant for the purposes it was given especially as they know they are a registered charity!

We know that without guidance and regulation it is a recipe for disaster, abuse and exploitation all done in the name of charity and done with our money.