Sunday, December 03, 2023

Peter McVerry Trust refiles 2022 Directors' report, financial statements

The Peter McVerry Trust has refiled its Directors' report and financial statements for last year.

The charity's original report, submitted in May, did not comply with the Companies Act 2014, because a Directors' Compliance Statement was omitted.

The updated report says adjustments to the financial statements were required, "to show a true and fair view of the financial position of the company in respect of the year ended 31st December 2022".

The previously published 2022 accounts showed a surplus of just under €4.5 million. The restated accounts show a surplus figure of just over €3.9m last year.

A surplus figure of €1.86m in 2021, has also been restated by the charity as €930,522 for that year.

The revised report has noted that the Peter McVerry Trust CLG receives its main funding from State agencies and that this is supplemented by donations and fundraising "to meet its operational costs of providing services to the relevant State agencies".

This statement was not included in the original 2022 report which says the restated financial results show that at the end of 2022 the McVerry Trust had assets of €187,162,287 (2021 - €133,022,439) and liabilities of €137,402,887 (2021 - €87,478,861).

The original directors' report submitted in May stated that the board had established a policy whereby unrestricted funds not committed or invested in tangible fixed assets held by the charity should be at least 13 weeks of the budgeted future annual expenditure.

In the revised report "circa €12m", has been included in the text to establish the quantity of the funds.

It also states that unrestricted reserves were €47.3m by year end.

The revised report which was signed by directors, Fr Peter McVerry and Deirdre-Ann Barr was approved by the Board of Directors of the Trust last Tuesday, 21 November.

The original report which was also signed by Fr McVerry and Ms Barr was submitted in May this year before it was removed online.

In July, the Approved Housing Bodies Regulatory Authority was first notified about a number of financial and governance issues at the charity.

In September, inspectors were appointed to investigate the Peter McVerry Trust and this examination is ongoing. There are no specifics on the timeframe for completion according to the AHBRA.

In October, CEO Francis Doherty who had been appointed to the role in June, resigned after further information emerged.

The Charities Regulator also announced last month that it had begun an investigation into the Peter McVerry Trust in relation to governance and finance-related matters.