Wednesday, December 21, 2011

JUDGE FINDS IN FAVOR OF ECM OVER LUBAALE

OK, I have avoided writing on the internet about the David Lubaale case while it was going on. I am now going to break that silence.

A judge in Uganda commercial court has found in favor of ECM in our case against David Lubaale. David was our former National Director who was fired when we discovered he had embezzled funds. David at that point was confronted by our Ugandan Governance Board. He confessed in writing that he had misused funds and forged bank statements to cover his tracks. He agreed to pay back funds misused and we agreed to keep the issue in house.

When he stopped paying back funds after refunding only a small portion of what he owed, our International Board felt we should seek justice through the courts so that Lubaale could not continue to prey on NGO's. Realizing the seriousness of what he had done, we also decided to go back and look at everything he had done, including the purchase of several properties.

We warned other NGO's whom we knew had contact with David. Most of them listened gratefully, but one believed David's story and had ECM made out as the villain out to get David.

Today we received word that ECM won the civil case. (A criminal case is still pending.) What that really means in terms of actually getting anything back remains to be seen, but at least ECM's name has been cleared. It is been a long and grueling experience.

We can only continue to pray that David will yet come to repentance. The man has immense potential if he can develop the character to go along with it.