UK Regulators Appoint Interim Managers at Barnabas Aid
The UK's Charity Commission steps in following the founder's recent death and whistleblower complaints about missing funds.
The Charity Commission of England and Wales has appointed interim managers at Barnabas Aid, removing the charity’s trustees from control amid an ongoing regulatory investigation.
Insert of Barnabas Aid Founder Patrick Sookhdeo
The commission announced June 19 it had appointed Edwina Turner and Catherine Gibbon of Anthony Collins LLP to serve as interim managers.
They will have four primary responsibilities: taking full control of the charity’s administration, assets, records, banking and governance; investigating historic decision-making and related-party agreements; protecting and recovering charity assets where necessary; and regularizing governance and reporting back to the Charity Commission.
The appointment follows the 2024 suspension of Barnabas Aid founder Patrick Sookhdeo from his leadership role. Sookhdeo died in May at age 79, according to My Christian Daily.
“It is with deep sadness that we announce that our chair of trustees, Dr. Patrick Sookhdeo, has died and has gone to be with the LORD,” said TBF Trust, another charity for persecuted Christians that Sookhdeo founded.
Following whistleblower complaints in 2024, board members began raising questions about the management of the charity and its funds.
In a statement, Barnabas Aid acknowledged “serious and repeated contraventions of internal policies; policies that were established to ensure the proper distribution of charitable donations.”
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The ministry said the Sookhdeos were among those who failed to comply with the internal policies and created a “toxic work environment” that discouraged staff from voicing concerns.
The ministry also disclosed unexplained financial transactions. “We have also identified significant payments made to the founders — and to others close to them, including some board members and trustees — which cannot be readily explained,” the statement said. “Ample opportunity has been provided to the founders to explain those transactions, but sadly they have refused to cooperate.”
“We have let our supporters down, we have let the Lord down and we have let the suffering and persecuted Church down,” the statement added.
Earlier this year, Barnabas Aid told MinistryWatch that it was committed to rebuilding trust and operating with full transparency moving forward.
The ministry hired Colin Bloom, a former British government official who had been retired for about a year, to lead the organization through its recovery. Bloom said he was called in to “bring order to a bit of chaos” and that the ministry’s leadership has since made a dramatic shift in direction.
Bloom said the ministry’s leadership has turned 180 degrees and is now committed to “transparency and excellence.”
“For donors and for donor funds, everything must be completely transparent,” Bloom emphasized, “and we’ve got nothing to hide.”
In the MinistryWatch database, Barnabas Aid International has a Financial Efficiency Rating of 2 out of 5 stars, an A Transparency Grade, and a Donor Confidence Score of 76 out of 100, placing it in the “Give With Confidence” category.
MinistryWatch reached out to Barnabas Aid for comment on the appointment of interim managers and will update this story with any response.
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