To find out the real reason why charges weren't brought, you would have to speak with your group's President or with the principal. I would assume that the decision to bring charges against someone is up to the person(s) in charge of the organization. Perhaps your board felt that to go to that next level would only bring more problems on the group. The thought of all the negative publicity may have swayed them that direction. It could also be that the person involved was suffering from some sort of issue that the board decided wouldn't be prudent to bring out in public. Just playing devil's advocate here.
I too would be incredibly upset if this happened in my parent group. Someone stealing from children has sunk pretty low. What if she hadn't been caught? Would she have eventually replaced the funds or just slunk off with the money? Maybe after your meeting, you'll feel better about how the situation was handled and hopefully you'll have the chance to voice your opinion.
We have just recently experienced a "misappropriation of funds" as it was explained to us. We will learn this afternoon just what all was involved. The internal investigator is meeting with us today to give us his findings. I know we have received a check from her but what I can understand is how she isn't being "charged" with anything. Let's say hypothetically, someone takes $8000 but when they realize they get caught they pay it back. The crime still occured and they should be held responsible for their actions in addition to repaying the funds. It's so frustrating! I saw the article in the local newspaper here in Florida about another incident of this the other day and I just wanted to scream. She got charged! Why not our person?! Sorry, just need to vent.
We had a similar situation at our school with a Board member, but not the Treasurer. We had to involve the police. We ended up recouping some of the money, but not all of it. We now have put several safety measures into place to protect us in the future. One is that all checks are made to the PTO and we rarely accept cash. Secondly, the Treasurer is not allowed to sign reimbursement checks for herself, they have to be signed by the President. Third, we added a few amendments to our By-Laws. One is a return check policy. Families that write bad checks are not able to chair any committees or hold a board position. The PTO also no longer accepts checks from those individuals. We created an Advisory Position for the Principal, so that she could help us through those kind of situations. Lastly, we established an Accountability Amendment for all volunteers. If chairpersons or board members are not fulfilling their duties or misappropriating funds, they can be removed from their position and the appropriate legal action taken. I know it was a really ugly situation at our school, but as soon as the authorities were involved, things moved pretty quickly after that. Good Luck.
Just thought too that you can go up the chain of the DODs folks and see what if any involvement they might want to have. Talk to the president of the spouse's club there as well--he/she may have a "significant other" that they can influence since it is for the good of the children. There may be a need to file a complaint in the host nation (there should be a liaison person at the Police office).The final stop in my mind would be a letter to your congressman that you are out there in the middle of whereever and are not being given the support required to investigate the issue. Do that LAST though and give the chains of command a chance to work this (also get you spouse's buy in since there may be aspects of your complaint process that will involve him). You MUST however, have all your ducks in order before you proceed with this. The audit findings etc...to make your case in a logical manner to whomever you ask to participate.
