From the South Wales Evening Post
A scandal-hit Swansea charity being wound-up among allegations of misuse of public funds has debts of more than £400,000. Creditors of the All Wales Ethnic Minority Association attended a meeting at insolvency practitioners Doyle Davies at their office in St Mellons, Cardiff, where they heard the Welsh Government's Welsh European Funding Office (Wefo) is owed £321,000, with the charity's total indebtedness being £408,497.
The hearing comes as police investigate the charity, based at the YMCA offices on Swansea's Kingsway, over allegations of financial mismanagement and nepotism, following a report which highlighted a "fundamental lack of control at Awema".
The report led to the Welsh Government terminating its funding of the charity, which works with local authorities across Wales and had received more than £8 million of public money.
The charity's chief executive Naz Malik was sacked earlier this month following the report, which concluded he had used Awema funds to pay off a personal credit card bill of more than £9,000, which he claimed was an advance on future expenses.
His salary had also increased to £65,719 without approval from the board, and he had claimed for rugby and football tickets worth £800 and a parking ticket for £110, while £2,120 was spent on gym membership for staff. The charity's whistle-blowing finance director Saquib Zia had also been dismissed.
The Welsh Government is also in the process of seeking repayment from the charity. The creditors hearing revealed that Wefo, through which European aid money was channelled to Awema for projects delivered with partners aimed at improving the employment prospects of people from ethnic minorities, is the Awema's largest creditor.
Others include Tegwen Malik, who is listed as being owed £6,615. Tegwen, daughter of sacked chief executive Naz Malik, was found in an earlier report to have seen her salary as the charity's operations manager rise from £20,469 in January 2008, to £50,052 in August 2011. It said she had been "employed, and promoted on a number of occasions, without any internal or external competition".
Other creditors include trade union officer Paul Dunn, who wrote the report outlining the irregularities. He has lodged a claim for £3,720.
The sum of £311,000 has been set aside for an employment tribunal claim, while the YMCA offices in Swansea is owed £4,242. Mr Malik's daughter-in-law Ourania Chatsiou, who was also employed by Awema, is owed £2,883.
A report prepared for the meeting concluded: "It will be clear, particularly with hindsight, that there was a risk."
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