DR 323: Letter from the Permanent Under Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office

 

 

Allegations of Misconduct by KBR Managers in British Embassy Baghdad

 

You will be aware that there have been further allegations of misconduct by KBR staff at our Baghdad Embassy.

 

These allegations, which were made to Embassy senior management by an Iraqi member of KBR staff and immediately reported to FCO, concerned misconduct by a female member of KBR's Iraqi staff, in the form of abusive behaviour towards other locally-hired KBR colleagues. It was further alleged that she was able to behave in this way without sanction because of an improper but consensual relationship with an expatriate KBR staff manager.

 

Unlike the allegations made 2007, there was no suggestion that expatriate KBR staff had sexually harassed or abused members of their local staff. But because the allegations were similar to those made in 2007 in the sense that they concerned relationships between local and expatriate KBR staff, we agreed with KBR that there should be a joint investigation into the allegations.

 

Two FCO officers with extensive experience of conducting investigations therefore joined two senior UK-based KBR staff in visiting Baghdad and Kuwait to investigate the allegations. They deployed to Baghdad within four days of the allegations being made. Meanwhile, the KBR manager concerned was immediately suspended and removed to Kuwait on the earliest available flight.

 

The investigating team has now completed their enquiries and reported the initial findings orally to FCO officials. These were based on a series of long and thorough interviews, totalling 60 hours, with all those who might have knowledge relevant to the allegations, including all KBR staff in Baghdad. The investigating team found no evidence to corroborate rumours of sexual misconduct between the expatriate manager and the female local staff member who was the subject of the complaint. They did find however that the female member of staff had encouraged such rumours; that she and four of her colleagues had engaged in violent, abusive and intimidating behaviour towards other KBR local staff; and that local KBR management had failed to deal satisfactorily with this behaviour. As a result, KBR have dismissed the five local staff concerned for gross misconduct, and the expatriate manager concerned has been removed from the FCO contract in Iraq.

 

I met senior managers from KBR to follow this up. They agreed that there had been a failure of management standards, which was of particular concern in the light of the 2007 allegations. We agreed on a series of actions to address these failings and deliver systemic improvements, through a thorough review of KBR's local management systems, structures and practices in Baghdad. This will include ensuring there are robust procedures in place to enable KBR's local staff to raise grievances in confidence, and for better oversight of expatriate KBR staff. We also agreed that the requirement for high standards of behaviour and management should be codified through new clauses in our contract with KBR. We will also apply these provisions to similar contracts between the FCO and other contractors as appropriate.

 

I recognise that these allegations and the findings detailed above have revived interest in KBR's investigation into the 2007 allegations. The investigating team were not tasked specifically to review that matter; their firm view is that it would have been impossible, given the passage of time, to do so fairly or effectively. I should emphasise however that in the course of an extremely thorough investigation, they did not encounter any suggestion that sexual abuse or harassment of local staff by expatriate managers was taking place, or had done so in the past. I would also reiterate the point made by the Foreign Secretary in his letter to you of 19 May 2008: that the conduct and outcome of the 2007 investigation was collectively reviewed in 2008 by a new Embassy senior management team, and that senior officials in the FCO accepted their recommendation that there were no grounds for re-opening the issue. That remains our position.

 

I have also taken note of the relevant recommendations in the Committee's report of 8 February. We will respond formally to these in due course, but we continue to believe that as a general rule, the primary responsibility for dealing with problems between and among staff employed by a contractor should lie with the company concerned. As our response to these allegations shows, however, we accept that occasions may arise when it is right to take action jointly.

 

Peter Ricketts

4 March 2009