4 AMBASSADORS MISTREATING DIPLOMATS AND LOCALLY ENGAGED STAFFS LIKE SLAVES CIC LEARNS
By CIC Investigations.
4 AMBASSADORS MISTREATING DIPLOMATS AND LOCALLY ENGAGED STAFFS LIKE SLAVES CIC LEARNS.
The four ambassadors cited by CIC Investigations team are Mrs Rose Sakala the ambassador to Ethiopia, Ms Eunice M.T. Luambia the Ambassador to Switzerland, Ms Judith Mulenga Ambassador to France and Mr Syvester Mundanda Ambassador to Belgium.
1. Ambassadors in Geneva, Paris, Brussels and Ethiopia are maltreating Diplomats and locally engaged staff like they are slaves and at any given time threatening them that they have all the powers to have them recalled while using the name of the President to do wrong things together with some of their loyal officers. Just a few weeks ago, one Ambassador who is also a bully, sent his loyalist officer to buy Milking machines claiming that they are for the President and even used the Embassy vehicle and fuel to go to the neighbouring town where they bought the equipment and further using the embassy vehicle transported the equipment to the port city about 74 kilometres away where it was shipped to Zambia. Just a few days ago the same Ambassador ordered the drivers to remove the logs from their log books because he does not want the auditors who are coming this week to see what is in the log books as he has transformed the embassy utility vehicles to be his wife and children’s personalised transport.
2. They use vulgar language on locally engaged staff who on several occasions have threatened to report these ambassadors to the host country’s authorities. One Ambassador had his Chauffeur resign unceremoniously because he was tired of the maltreatment, the Chauffeur had to calculate his number of days before retirement and decided to take sick leave for close to a month and later got his annual leave up to his date of retirement. He confided in the officers at the Embassy that he could not go on working with the Ambassador because he uses vulgar language on him. The driver who was suppose to replace the Chauffeur also refused to take up the position sighting similar reasons. A month later, his gardener also resigned in similar fashion.
3.Most of these ambassadors in Europe even report for work between 12 hours and 14 hours everyday and do not attend official meetings with other organisations represented by the missions in question as they decide to only go for events and functions where they will be given allowances . Sometimes they go to meetings meant for junior officers who are able to explain better the country’s vision just because there is money involved ( Perdiem). There is even one Ambassador who wanted the embassy to buy an extra vehicle just for his family to use when he has an official embassy vehicle and when the procurement committee rejected his proposal, because the embassy already has enough vehicles, he threatened the diplomats that he was going to disband the committees because they do not do what he wants
4. Some of them even reach an extent of Slapping their diplomats. A report was even submitted to the ministry of foreign affairs about the Ambassador who slapped an officer.
5. They treat locally engaged staff with cruelty. If they go for a function or event, they keep the drivers hungry and do not allow them to leave an inch from the cars as such they cannot even buy food for themselves.
6. In some missions locally engaged staff are resigning because they cannot stand the maltreatment. They have even on several occasions threatened to report to the host government’s foreign ministry.
7. In some embassies spouses of diplomatic staff have been called names by Ambassadors for deciding to either stay back home in Zambia or for staying here with their families. Men are called dependants by the ambassadors which is demeaning by Zambian standards.
8. Some Ambassadors charge monthly bills to their domestic staff even when they know that government pays their bills. There is one Ambassador who charges his Chef 1000 Euros every month as rent and bills when the house that he lives in is a government house and bills are paid by the government. The maid complained to the embassy about it and asked that atleast the amount be reduced as she is only paid 2000 Euros by the government.
9. Some Ambassadors have stopped receiving invitations from governments and other organisations they represent because they are always absent for meetings without even being courteous enough to send an apology which is an diplomatic as it is translated as a boycott in diplomacy.
10. Other Ambassadors have been retired as civil servants and are suppose to be in Zambia to officially retire and wait to be reposted but have been paying a known PS at PSMD to keep them in their Missions without contracts for close to a year.
11. They intimidate their juniors with threats of being connected saying they have the authority to have them recalled and have even been boasting that they have the intelligence in their pockets because the Director General at the Intelligence is their personal friend who they lived with when they were first employed
12. When it comes to embassy transport, The Ambassador has a representation vehicle which he is suppose to use for official duties, but some Ambassadors use the vehicles as utility vehicles for their families while others have made the embassy utility vehicles and drivers to drive their wives like personal drivers, including transporting their kids to and from school while using embassy fuel and drivers. They do all this to the detriment of official duties.
they even say that there is no way my wife or my daughter will have no transport and yet they refuse to buy personal cars for their families because they want to use government vehicles.
13. There are even some ambassadors that embarrass the president just by the manner they present themselves, they cannot even groom themselves properly. One Ambassador had his trouser fall in front of diplomats at the embassy because he does not wear a belt and dresses as though he is going to the bathroom. He even puts on different colored socks..
14. Some have even reached an extent of refusing to sign documents without proper reason just to punish the officers they do not like so that when the said document does not go to capital they blame the officer and claim that the officer is not working just to punish the officers and even threaten them of recalls.
Ok let me just say it’s a whole lot of things.
15. When they have an issue with officers they will not call the officer to guide him or her but will want to embarrass the officer in a meeting.
16. Some of these Ambassador they have turned the missions to personal to holder to an extent where they want to turn Mission Facebook pages to their personal pages. They will not allow the officers to post anything else that the Mission has done unless they are in the story. They are mini- Dictators in these mission.
CIC PRESS TEAM