Être administrateur d'une association caritative est souvent perçu comme un honneur et une occasion de contribuer à la communauté. Toutefois, devenir administrateur implique un engagement et un niveau de responsabilité qu'il ne faut pas sous-estimer.
Que vous soyez déjà administrateur d'une association caritative, qu'il s'agisse d'un projet local ou d'une organisation de renommée mondiale, ou que vous envisagiez de vous impliquer, le rôle d'administrateur implique un certain nombre de responsabilités.
We outline the main responsibilities below, with a particular emphasis on accounting and audit requirements for Scottish charities.
Arrière-plan
The charities sector in Scotland is generally overseen by the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR), also known as the ‘Scottish Charity Regulator’. The OSCR is a non-ministerial government department which is the independent regulator and registrar for Scottish charities.
The OSCR plays an important role in the charity sector and is in place to give the public confidence in the integrity of charities and to help charity trustees to understand and comply with their legal duties.
A key part of the OSCR’s work is to provide advice to trustees. A great deal of useful advice can be found on the OSCR website, where there is a section dedicated to charity trustees’ duties.
Types d'organismes de bienfaisance
The main legislation which charities in Scotland operate is the Charities and Trustee Investment Act (Scotland) 2005 (the 2005 Act). Charities can be created in a number of ways but are usually either:
- constituées en vertu de la loi sur les sociétés de 2006 ou antérieure (organismes de bienfaisance à responsabilité limitée)
- incorporated under the 2005 Act through The Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisations Regulations 2011 (‘the General Regulations’) (Scottish charitable incorporated organisations, SCIOs); or
- créées par une déclaration de fiducie (organismes de bienfaisance non constitués en société).
Each of these charities needs to register and file their accounts with the OSCR and limited companies are additionally registered with Companies House.
The type of the charity will determine the full extent of a trustee’s responsibilities.
Qui est un administrateur ?
The 2005 Act defines trustees as ‘persons having the general control and management of the administration of a charity’. This definition would typically include:
- for unincorporated charities and SCIOs, members of the executive or management committee
- pour les organismes de bienfaisance à responsabilité limitée, les administrateurs ou les membres du comité de gestion.
Charities need at all times to fulfil the charitable purpose for which they were created and it is the duty of all the trustees to ensure this.
restrictions et responsabilités du fiduciaire
Outre les responsabilités inhérentes à la fonction de fiduciaire, un certain nombre de restrictions peuvent s'appliquer. Celles-ci visent à prévenir tout conflit d'intérêts entre les intérêts personnels du fiduciaire et ses obligations de fiduciaire. Elles prévoient généralement que :
- Les administrateurs ne peuvent tirer aucun avantage personnel de l'organisme de bienfaisance, bien que leurs dépenses raisonnables puissent être remboursées.
- trustees should not be paid for their role as trustee.
There are limited exceptions to these principles which are set out in the 2005 Act. Where trustees do not act prudently, lawfully or in accordance with their governing document they may find themselves personally responsible for any loss they cause to the charity.
Responsabilités des administrateurs
The OSCR guidance ‘Charity Trustee Duties‘ explains what it means to be a trustee. Trustees have full responsibility for the charity and a general duty to act in the interests of the charity. This means they should:
- operate in a way which is consistent with the charity’s charitable purposes
- respecter la loi et les règles énoncées dans les statuts de l'organisme de bienfaisance
- act with care and diligence
- manage any conflict of interest between the charity and any person or organisation that may appoint the charity’s trustees.
Trustees have a duty to make sure that their charity’s funds are only applied in the furtherance of its charitable objects. They need to be able to demonstrate that this is the case, so they should keep records which are capable of doing this.
Charity trustees must put the interests of the charity before their own needs or those of any relatives or business interests. Where a decision must be taken where one option would be in the interests of a trustee and another in that of the charity a trustee should make sure the other trustees know of the conflict and should not take part in the discussion or decision.
Charity Trustee Duties also provides information on some specific duties contained in the 2005 Act. The guidance sets out trustees’ duties to:
- updating your charity’s details – provide all the information needed to keep the Scottish Charity Register up to date
- reporting to the OSCR – comply with the statutory duty to supply certain information to the OSCR regarding annual monitoring, charity accounting and making changes to your charity
- financial record keeping and recording – keep proper accounting records and prepare an annual statement of account and annual report which are externally scrutinised and sent alongside the annual return to the OSCR
- fundraising – take control of how the charity raises funds
- provide information to the public.
These duties are shared by every individual in charge of the charity. No individual charity trustee (for example the Chair or Treasurer) has more responsibility than any other trustee.
exigences comptables
The 2005 Act requires that charities:
- tenir une comptabilité complète et précise (et les besoins de financement sont ici d'une importance particulière)
- prepare charity accounts and an annual report on its activities
- ensure an audit or independent examination is carried out
- submit an annual return, annual report and accounts to OSCR (and, for limited company charities, to Companies House).
La mesure dans laquelle ces exigences doivent être satisfaites dépend généralement du type d'organisme de bienfaisance et du montant des revenus générés.
Besoins en fonds
An important aspect of accounting for charities is the understanding of the different ‘funds’ that a charity can have.
Les fonds représentent essentiellement les revenus de l'organisme caritatif, et leur utilisation peut être soumise à certaines restrictions. Par exemple, un don peut être accepté uniquement à condition qu'il soit utilisé à des fins spécifiques.
Il incombe alors aux administrateurs de veiller à ce que ces fonds « à usage restreint » soient utilisés uniquement aux fins prévues.
collecte de fonds
The effective management and control of fundraising is also an important trustee responsibility. The Scottish Fundraising Standards Panel oversees fundraising standards and deals with fundraising complaints for Scottish registered charities in line with the Code of Fundraising Practice.
Le rapport annuel
Le rapport annuel est souvent un document assez complet, car la législation définit le minimum d'informations qui doivent y figurer. Ce rapport comprend généralement :
- un rapport des administrateurs (qui peut également servir de rapport des directeurs et de rapport stratégique, si nécessaire pour les organismes de bienfaisance)
- un état des activités financières pour l'année
- un compte de recettes et de dépenses pour l'année (pour certaines organisations caritatives)
- un bilan
- un état des flux de trésorerie
- notes aux comptes (y compris les politiques comptables).
Exigences d'audit
Whether or not a charity requires an audit will depend mainly upon how much income is received or generated and their year end:
- all charities where income exceeds £500,000 require an audit
- all other charities require an independent examination. Where ‘accruals’ accounts are prepared the independent examiner must be suitably qualified.
Il existe d'autres critères à prendre en compte, notamment en ce qui concerne le total des actifs, et nous serions ravis d'en discuter plus en détail avec vous.
Exigences en matière de rapports
Il existe un cadre exhaustif qui détermine comment les comptes d'un organisme de bienfaisance doivent être établis.
Unincorporated charities with income below £250,000 may prepare receipts and payments accounts, unless their governing document says otherwise.
All other charities must prepare accounts that show a ‘true and fair’ view and are referred to as ‘accruals’ accounts. To show a ‘true and fair’ view the accounts generally need to follow the requirements of the Charities Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP). The SORP can be viewed at www.charitysorp.org and charities are able to build a bespoke version of the SORP dealing with their own circumstances.
