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Dear SEBSers,

As many of you are probably aware, recently, there have been a number of reports in social media of allegations of financial misconduct by SEBS-NA in disbursement of funds in the aftermath of the Gorkha Earthquake in 2015. We take the responsibility of financial transparency very seriously; while SEBS-NA to date has not received any formal inquiries or complaints regarding its earthquake relief and reconstruction work, we are compelled to release this statement along with supporting documents to address those allegations and to assure our members, supporters and friends, of our intent to continue doing the good work the right way.

Amidst the cacophony of reports in social media, two specific allegations have been made; we’d like to address them here.

1. Allegations of financial misconduct
As stated above, and repeatedly previously, we take financial transparency and accountability of our operations very seriously. We conform to the laws of the US governing our organization, something we are required to do to maintain our 501(c)(3) non-profit status. To our members and community-at -large, we have made our annual tax documents as well as other financial reports public. Additionally, to address this very specific allegation, we are making public, a PDF document that lists all the funds raised and disbursed, along with the project(s) the funds were made available to and the contact person related to the project. In most cases, the contact person for a project was a fellow SEBS member; in other cases, they were partner organizations and individuals vouched for by SEBS member(s). The approval of, and the amount to appropriate for, each of these projects was done by the majority of the then-SEBS-NA executive committee (as allowed by its bylaws) over a two-month period in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake. It is farcical to suggest that a single executive committee member was able to make any of these decisions solely while the rest of the executive committee members either looked away or acquiesced, and is an attempt to defame and impugn the character of the executive committee members. As the records show, this allegation is utterly baseless.

2. Allegations of donations to a Political Party
As the attached records should make it abundantly clear, SEBS-NA funded a large number of projects in different parts of the country affected by the earthquake. We provided financial help to individuals and non-governmental organizations who were on the ground in the best position to provide the most relief immediately- whether it was providing medical supplies to a hospital, providing tarps to a village or providing a safe space for children away from trauma of the event. Most of these individuals were SEBS members; in other cases, these were individuals and organizations vouched for by SEBS members. We did not enquire on the political affiliations of these volunteers to make the decision in funding them; doing so would have been inhumane- natural disasters do not strike along political fault lines. In fact, we would expect these volunteers to represent many different organizations- political, social or otherwise. In no case did we make a donation to a political party to run their political operations. To state that we singled out a political party and specifically made donations to the political operation of that party is categorically false. We have been made aware of one instance where a check was made out in the name of a political party on our behalf; we have checked our records and can confirm that while the check was initially made out in the name of Bibeksheel- in the early days when confusion reigned- we quickly realized this was not appropriate and put a stop to the payment immediately. We have checked with the concerned financial institution and confirmed that that check was never deposited or cashed; if anyone would like to get a copy of that confirmation from the financial institution, it can be made available to anyone with legal authority when requested formally via an email to sebsna@sebsonline.org

Based on these allegations, it is clear certain members have decided to cherry-pick information and distort facts to piece together a narrative that fits their agenda of personal vendetta with no concern for the damage it does to the organization, its past, current and future officers and the community at large. This is grossly irresponsible and does immense dis-service to the ideals of Budhanilkantha School and SEBS. We stand by our statement released on June 19, 2019 and strongly condemn these malicious and abhorrent accusations. The integrity of the institution and its officeholders is sacrosanct; we will do everything in our power, including pursuing legal options, to defend our organization and its office holders against such nefarious designs. We encourage everyone to reach out to us via email at sebsna@sebsonline.org if you have any concerns or questions regarding any of this, or anything else regarding SEBS-NA.

2015 Gorkha Earthquake Financial document link:
2015_sebs-na_earthquake_relief_fund_20190727.pdf
Please note that this password protected confidential document is only made available for SEBS-NA and Global SEBS members as it contains personal information of SEBS members. SEBS-NA does not authorize this document to be emailed or publicly shared on any platform. Please login to sebsonline.org and password will be available in member’s area.

Respectfully,
Executive Committee of SEBS-NA (2017-2019)