The Uganda National NGO Bureau has kicked off a special investigation into the activities of El Cambio Academy/Football Academy Denmark Uganda Foundation Ltd., which is based in Masaka City’s Kimanya-Kabonera Division.
This was confirmed by David Okello, the Executive Director of Uganda National NGO Board.
Okello said they are investigating the operations and conduct of business at the El Cambio Academy.
He explained that the inquiry was commenced at the instigation of the Internal Affairs Minister Gen. Kahinda Otafiire, who recently wrote to him highlighting a range of governance-related concerns that must be inquired into after one of the NGO founding officials petitioned his office.
In the 6-page petition, the whistleblower who claims to have co-founded El Cambio Academy with Danish missionary Thomas Thor Madsen explained to Otafiire how the original objective was to emancipate and empower Ugandan children from financially deprived backgrounds through character formation, education, and sporting talent nurturing.
The whistleblower enumerated to Otafire the different things the Danish co-founder has done over the years to divert from the original ideals for which El Cambio Academy (Masaka City’s equivalent of Onduparak) was incorporated and founded as an NGO in 2018.
That these objectives included football training, education, and character development among the children and youths of Uganda.
In a bid to illustrate governance-related breaches, the whistleblower also reported to Otafiire how the Danish co-founder was hostile to the idea of having a strong governing board in place besides resenting him (the whistleblower) for repeatedly raising a red flag on all those breaches.
That time came, and the Danish national sidelined his co-founder, altered the organization’s founding documents, and brought in other people to replace fellow founders who he considered too curious, uncooperative, and big-headed.
That having sidelined the Board, the Danish co-founder, who also serves as the CEO, has been making El Cambio Academy-related decisions single-handedly to the exclusion of fellow top management members.
Otafiire was also told about the existence of other SMCs like Visionary Pathways (SMC) Ltd. and Masaka Sunshine Football Club Ltd. The minister was also asked to inquire into the billions that continue to be fundraised from wealthy organizations in Denmark in the names of the Ugandan children who are supposed to be benefiting from the same under the El Cambio Academy.
He was also informed about the 15-year partnership collaboration agreement that was signed and executed between El Cambio in Masaka and the AGF Football Club based in Denmark.
It’s a multi-million-dollar secretive transaction the whistleblower asked Otafiire to inquire into. The whistleblower revealed to Otafiire that El Cambio has a lot of funders in Denmark, including Craft Leico, Ventures, Match Winners, Fuge Kompagi, Dear Football Nordish Fundering A/SF & YSIO Denmark. That information relating to all these is only known to the CEO and not the Board or anyone else at El Cambio.
The whistleblower says that those who ask governance-related questions while demanding to be included in all manner of decision-making are chased from the employment of El Cambio contrary to the provisions of Uganda’s Employment Act.
Besides imploring the minister to interest himself in police investigations that were previously conducted at the instigation of the Masaka City RCC under CRB277/2024, the whistleblower also demands that the matter of inquiring into what has gone wrong at El Cambio be treated as urgent so that the interests of Ugandan children at New Kumbu are adequately shielded.
Having perused the petition and found some merit in the issues raised there under, Gen. Otafiire wrote to the NGO Bureau Executive Director David Okello, directing him to quickly investigate and write a report guiding him on which mitigation steps to take. He ordered Okello to investigate and verify the claims the whistleblower made in the petition “and urgently advise on the next course of action.”
In the Friday afternoon interview, David Okello clarified that “the minister forwarded the complaint to us, and we have met the parties involved, and the investigation is still ongoing.” He said the best way would be for the complainant who petitioned the minister to reconcile and make peace with the Danish philanthropist. “It’s what we have asked them to do, besides asking for more documents, as we investigate and review all the documentation that has been tendered. If that fails, we at the Bureau shall take a decision based on facts that will have been established, and our decision will be final.”
He explained that the Bureau leverages several options when resolving disputes of that nature, including remedial actions, which could comprise the Bureau cautioning and guiding the disputants on what the right thing is and how to do it to rectify and put the raised governance deficiencies right within a stipulated time frame. “The sanctioning can be a warning, suspension, and revocation of the NGO’s permit or even blacklisting the organization,” Okello explained in a bid to signal the fate that awaits El Cambio Academy, whose disclosed founders and promoters originally included Thomas Thor Madsen, Joyce Bukenya, the CEO’s sister Susan Thor Bernsten, Samuel Waliggo, and Nelson Kasadha.
Okello explained that much as this is the first time for El Cambio Academy NGO to face such investigations, all options are on the table depending on what investigators will establish. “If the governance issues at the organization are established to be gross [as the whistleblower alleges them to be], matters can be escalated even to permit revocation, but it will all depend on facts that we get to establish at the end of the ongoing investigations,” clarified the ED.
At the NGO Bureau fact-finding meetings, the complainant or petitioner has always been escorted by a team of lawyers from POACE Advocates led by George Musisi, as ABC Mall-based SIMA Advocates represents El Cambio Academy with Counsel Ian Mulindwa having personal conduct of the matter.
So far, three meetings have been held at the NGO Bureau’s headquarters at Kingdom Kampala with a view to helping parties to find middle ground.
