Dundee University risks having its status as a charity withdrawn after failing to submit its annual accounts on time.
Its annual financial statement is now marked overdue on the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) register.
Because of the university’s royal charter and its status as a charity, it is not required to file its finances on Companies House.
Instead, it submits its annual accounts with OSCR.
Charities must submit their online annual return with OSCR within nine months of their accounting year-end, which for Dundee is July 31 2024.
This makes April 30 the last day they could have handed them in on time.
There can be no extension to this deadline, the regulator said.
OSCR has powers to act should the university continue not to file their accounts, including ultimately removing its charity status.
They said the university was engaging with them regarding the late accounts.
What are the risks of failing to submit?
The university said it is continuing to engage with auditors in getting its accounts ready for publication.
But there will be a red mark in its file on the OSCR register, visible to the public.
OSCR said failing to submit annual return and accounts can seriously affect the university’s reputation as a charity and ultimately result in it being removed from the Scottish Charity Register.
If a charity is late or has not submitted their annual information at all, OSCR said it can:
- Decrease public confidence in the university
- Affect the ability to get funding from the public or funding bodies
- Damage reputation as a trustworthy charity
- Affect whether potential donors choose to support a charity or not
What action can OSCR take?
OSCR has legal powers granted to them under the Charities (Scotland) Act 2023.
The most powerful step OSCR can take is removing the university’s charitable status, should they fail to submit.
OSCR can also direct the university to prepare accounts, appoint someone they deem suitable to do the accounts on the university’s behalf, and issue an order directing the university to hand over any documents needed for “the purposes of an inquiry”.
An OSCR spokesperson said: “As of Thursday, the charity is officially overdue in filing its accounts.
“OSCR is engaging with stakeholders regarding other issues that have arisen within the charity.
“Charities risk losing their charitable status if they are significantly late in meeting regulatory obligations and fail to engage with OSCR, though neither of these conditions apply at this stage.
“However, missing submission deadlines can still have several negative consequences for a charity’s operations, so it is important to remain mindful of these deadlines.”
Dundee University annual accounts
The university has managed to file on time for the past five years, the OSCR register shows, usually well before the April 30 deadline.
The Courier was leaked a scrapped financial statement for 2023-24 which was to be shown to the university court and detailed a £12 million deficit.
In them, former principal Iain Gillespie boasted the institution was “blooming“.
The day after the university’s court was supposed to see them, he wrote to staff telling them job losses were “inevitable” and there was a £30m black hole in the budget.
He resigned a month later.
Earlier this week university bosses unveiled their revised recovery plan after the first one was deemed “unpalatable” by the Scottish Government.
The new plan will see the number of job losses reduced from 700 to 300, made through a voluntary redundancy scheme rather than compulsory lay-offs.
A spokesperson for the university said: “We are continuing to work with the auditors towards publishing the annual report and final financial statements for 2023-24.”
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