London, Apr 7 : Prince Harry's charity for orphaned and vulnerable children has seen its fundraising and donations income fall by 84 percent.

Sentebale, which operates in Lesotho, paid out tens of thousands in wages and other benefits to staff, which was more than the total collected from donations.

Harry co-founded the charity in 2006 with Lesotho's Prince Seeiso with the aim of helping children orphaned by the HIV/AIDS epidemic and those affected by poverty in Lesotho.

In 2007, Sentebale raised 1.15 million pounds. Donations, however, fell to 250,000 pounds last year and the charity had to spend the equivalent of a quarter of that (62,000 pounds), to raise it in the first place.

Its accounts show that by the end of August the charity, set up by the third in line to the throne in 2006, came close to going "broke" with only 53,000 pounds left in the bank, The Telegraph reports.

They also disclose that the charity, which was intended to further the humanitarian work of Princess Diana, has quietly dropped Coutts, the Queen's bank.

The trustees have switched the money to HSBC, as they believed that Coutts, because of its historic association with the Royal Family, would appear too elitist for a charity working in the Third World.

The accounts show that the charity spent 791,000 pounds in the financial year ending in August, of which 335,000 pounds was given to its 16 charitable partners in Lesotho to spend on projects such as children's homes, clinics and counselling centres. The rest was spent on costs such as staff salaries. (ANI)