Now Blair is plotting new direction for charity empire

JUST a few weeks ago, Tony Blair announced that he was focusing on his ‘not-for-profit’ work, after squirrelling away millions from secretive deals with despots around the world.

Now, I learn that two of the former Labour Prime Minister’s charities, the Africa Governance Initiative [AGI] and the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, are to be revamped.

‘During 2016, the trustees have been reviewing new opportunities for the charity and its future strategic direction,’ confirms a spokesman for the Faith Foundation.

‘In particular, they have been considering an invitation by the founder [Blair] as to whether the charity might transition its operations and expertise to a new not-for-profit entity to be established by him.’

Blair won’t spell out in detail how the AGI and Faith Foundation are to be restructured.

The globe-trotting moneybags has been criticised in the past for mixing his charity work with his commercial activities, so a new entity might help get both organisations off to a fresh start and avoid their being dogged by controversy. It certainly still pays to work for the charities headed by the acquisitive former PM. I can reveal that the AGI hiked staff costs by almost £400,000 last year, taking the charity’s total staff costs to more than £3million — or an average of around £57,300 per employee.

Latest accounts show that the AGI, which works ‘shoulder to shoulder’ with African governments, spent almost £200,000 on hiring consultants and temporary staff last year, up from £138,000 in 2014.

AS OF December 31 last year, the AGI had 52 staff and two secondees, compared with 54 staff and one secondee in 2014. A spokesman says: ‘over the course of 2015, AGI employed extra staff to work on the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.’

Donations to the Faith Foundation — which works to prevent religious extremism — shot up from around £3 million in 2014 to £4 million last year.

Blair said last month that he would retain a small number of personal consultancies for his income, but 80 per cent of his time would be pro bono on the not-for-profit side.