Court orders former employee to pay shs260m for causing loss to Uganda Baati

The Civil Division of the High Court in Kampala has ordered Duncan Mugabi, a former employee of Uganda Baati Limited to pay shs260 million in compensation to the company for causing financial loss.

Mugabu worked as a Sales Manager for Uganda Baati for the Western region between 2013 and 2019 but during the period the company received several complaints from customers claiming they had not received goods they had paid for, whereas others received less than paid for.

The company commenced investigations and it was found a number of discrepancies relating to customers’ accounts handled and managed by their sales manager and during a disciplinary hearing, he agreed to refund some of the payments for the goods invoiced that he had erroneously obtained without authorization.

He however refused to pay as agreed, promoting Uganda Baati to drag him to court.

In his judgment, Justice Musa Ssekaana said that the former Uganda Baati Sale’s Manager’s actions can only be termed as a criminality of fraudulent and false accounting since they involved an employee altering, destroying or defacing an account.

“The actions of the defendant were premised on falsification of documents or making false entries in clients’ accounts. Therefore, forgery and falsification of documents are mechanisms to commit fraud. Fraud essentially involves using deception to dishonestly make personal gain for oneself and or create a loss for another,”Ssekaana said.

Reasoning with the company that said that it had lost some of its customers after being served fewer goods than paid for whereas other never received what they had paid for, judge therefore said the former Uganda Baati’s Sales Manager needs to pay for his deeds.

The judge directed that Duncan Mugabi pays shs168 million as special damages to his former employers, shs15 million as general damages and shs5 million as punitive damages.

“The plaintiff is awarded interest at a rate of 10% on special damages from the date of filing the suit and 10% on general and exemplary damages from the date of this judgment,” Justice Ssekaana directed.