TRUSTEES of a Gurdwara have revealed an overpayment of £415,678 to the building’s constructors.

The Singh Sabha Sports Centre, on Stoke Poges Lane, Slough, was noted, in a report by its own trustees, to have made hundreds of thousands of pounds in overpayments to the construction firm HS Dev + Co, that built the centre – work on which concluded in 2012.

The report further stated that the trustees filed a Serious Incident Report with the Charities Commission, attempting to launch an investigation against HS Dev + Co, and the managers of the Gurdwara.

The trustees said: “An investigation by the forensic accountants was concluded, and a report was produced on January 14, 2015, which confirmed that discrepancies in the account with the project managers occurred and the amount verified was £342,719.”

The Gurdwara raised £756,193 in funds last year, virtually all of which was collected from voluntary donations by the Sikh community.

The trustees were ultimately unsuccessful in recovering the money from the construction firm, and the Charities Commission indicated it would “not be pursuing legal action against any member of the Gurdwara for wrongdoing”.

It did, however, strongly recommend that the trustees adopt a “robust administration of the Charity’s financial affairs”.

The Gurdwara is governed by Slough Borough councillor, Joginder Singh Bal. When asked by the Observer about the overpayment, he said he was not aware of it. Mr Bal said: “If there was any case, it would have been addressed by the Charities Commission.”

A spokeswoman for the Charities Commission said: “The Charity Commission opened a case into the registered charity, Sri Guru Singh Sabha, Slough, after the trustees submitted a Serious Incident Report regarding overpayment to a company. The issue concerned a contractual dispute, which is an issue for trustees to resolve with the third party.”

The trustees wrote off the £415,613 as a loss. HS Dev + Co declined to comment