BWA: A Charity or a Political Side-Hustle? Time for Answers.

 

BWA: A Charity or a Political Side-Hustle? Time for Answers.

Every so often you lift the lid on something in Sandwell and think:
“Ah, there it is… the familiar smell of political overlap, dodgy governance and zero transparency.”

This time it’s the Bangladeshi Women’s Association (BWA) in Tipton – an organisation that claims to be for the whole community, but whose leadership structure, finances and operations raise more questions than answers.

And frankly, the more you look at it, the more this resembles a charity being run, staffed and protected by Labour politicians, while sitting on large sums of public money with almost no scrutiny.

---

Political Capture 101: Councillors Everywhere

Let’s start with the obvious.

BWA is run by Cllr Syeda Amina Khatun MBE, a long-standing Labour councillor for Tipton Green.
Its senior staff include Cllr Suzanne Hartwell, another Labour councillor and Cabinet Member.
Its board includes former Labour councillor Derek Rowley.

That’s not “community leadership”.
That’s a political ecosystem wearing a charity’s skin.

And when the very councillors who influence public funding streams are the same people running and staffing the charity that receives that funding, we have a structural conflict of interest so blatant it barely needs explaining.

---

Follow the Money: Reserves Piling Up, Explanations Running Thin

BWA’s most recent accounts show:

• £322,465 in reserves

• £323,589 in cash

• A 52% jump in income

• Creditors exploding from £3,913 → £53,158 in a year

• A £97,622 surplus in one go

This is happening in a ward with deep deprivation and daily hardship.

So why is a community charity hoarding cash at these levels?
Why is there a sudden £50k spike in creditors?
Why is none of this properly explained?
Where is the detailed breakdown?
Why should residents trust any of this?

This is public money. Not political pocket money.

---

Commissioned Work, Council Links & Zero Transparency

BWA operates Tipton Muslim Community Centre and Jubilee Park Community Centre under Sandwell Council arrangements.

They deliver:

• Council-funded services

• Lottery-funded projects

• Sandwell Consortium CIC projects (where Khatun is a founder member)

Yet there are:

• No separate published accounts for each centre

• No public breakdown of subcontracted services

• No clear explanation of how public grants are divided

• No competitive tendering information

• No salary vs. delivery cost transparency

It’s all “trust us, we’re in charge”.
Sandwell residents know exactly how well that has worked out in the past.

---

Inclusive, or Just for One Community?

BWA repeatedly claims to serve “the whole community”.

But several of their own service listings identify an “ethnicity focus: Bangladeshi”.

Meanwhile, members of the Pakistani community have complained that they’re not being served equally.

Where is the demographic breakdown?
Where is the impact data?
Why is there no published evidence of who actually uses the services?

A charity taking borough-wide public money cannot just pick its target audience and hope nobody notices.

---

The Astro-Turf Funding Question: Still No Clarity

The Jubilee Park astro-turf refurbishment was funded by:

• A £40,000 Sport England grant, and

• A small community crowdfunder

But local residents have long questioned whether earlier council-earmarked funds were diverted elsewhere.

To this day:
No clear audit trail. No public explanation. No transparency.

You cannot run public assets on “just take our word for it”.

---

A Pattern Sandwell Residents Know Too Well

Let’s be honest.

This isn’t about one community centre.
It’s about how power is used in Sandwell.

BWA looks less like a charity and more like a politically-friendly delivery vehicle, staffed by councillors, supported by councillors, and funded through systems overseen by councillors.

Every alarm bell for governance, accountability and fairness is ringing.

And unless these overlaps are challenged, Sandwell will carry on being a playground for insiders while ordinary residents get whatever scraps fall through the cracks.

---

Time for Answers – Proper Ones

The community deserves:

• Full reserves and spending transparency

• Centre-level accounts

• Subcontracting details

• Recruitment transparency

• Demographic service-use data

• Proper conflict-of-interest management

• External independent governance review

This isn’t optional.
This is public money, public trust and public accountability.

If BWA is confident in its governance, it should welcome scrutiny.
If not, well… that says everything.

#Sandwell #Tipton #BWA #Governance #Transparency #Accountability #Labour #LocalPolitics #CharitySector #PublicMoney #CommunityCentres #SandwellCouncil #TiptonGreen