Dear member,
Whether in church or in any other organisation if fraud has taken place then it has to be investigated. The Enquiry Officer (EO) must find out whether there were any loopholes in the system and whether the fraudster has taken benefit of those loopholes. The next thing to be investigated is who was/were involved in the fraud and what evidence exists of the fraud. Those who are involved in the fraud should be told to depose before the EO. If the alleged culprits fail to depose, the enquiry can be ordered a second time, but this time the EO may go ahead with the enquiry even with the absence of the alleged culprits.
Once the EO presents his/her findings, the head of the organisation is required to issue a notice to the fraudster on the recovery of the funds siphoned off.
If you follow this process, it will be a foolproof one. If the alleged culprit fails to repay, then on the strength of the enquiry report, the head of the organisation reserves the right to file a police complaint.
Those who do fraud are always smart. Therefore, while dealing with them, we need to be cautious and should not leave an ambiguity that makes it possible to evade an obligation.
Thanks,
Dinesh Divekar