I am a senior Civil Servant who has worked in the government for a very long time now. I have been following and seeing what is happening in as far as the appointments and deployments into the civil service are being done. In this regard, I would like to make a few comments on the same and probably give the President a word of caution.

What is clear is that the whole thing a circus and in most cases it has not benefited Zambia as country. I want to state here that, the way appointments for people to service in missions abroad are done in our country lives us with a lot questions than answers! It is sad in the sense the process has no format and lacks credibility in all aspects.

What is even more disheartening is that the quality of the so called diplomats, especially ambassadors and some officers is quiet low and very compromised. In as much as we are a developing third world country, there is need for the powers that be, to put in place a system that would be used to identify and recommend quality individuals with credible and impeccable abilities to represent our countries. Having had the opportunity to travel and visit some of the Embassies and High Commissions abroad; I must say that the country is largely under represented.

This is mainly due to the substance of people that we send to man our offices abroad. The majority of the Ambassadors and High Commissioners, are either half illiterate or not educated at all. The known fact is that the majority of Ambassadors and High Commissioners are holding these offices by virtue of being aliened to the ruling party.

To a greater extend, this has compromised their relevance in their representation in that, their focus does not go beyond the mandate of the party they are supporting. The other reality is that most of representations in these foreign missions abroad have very little or no interest in the affairs of the country.

Many of them, are in these missions for their own benefits, as most of them were appointed when their lives had hit critical points. It is no secret for me to state that most of the Ambassadors and High Commissioners are people were are coming out of joblessness with a bitter test of poverty, misery and relegation.

This can be testified by the levels of bickering and rush for petty corruption and misuses of funds in missions. The levels of fraud and money laundering are so rampant in our missions abroad. The other sad fact is the issue of the officers that are sent to take up subsequent offices. In the past, it was a tradition that officers, just like Heads of Missions, emanated from the civil service. I had an opportunity to visit one mission abroad where all the officers, except one, I think it was Third Secretary – Personal, came from the streets; meaning that these officers were either cadres or relatives of the powers that be! In my interaction with them, I would read the levels of disorderliness in the way they worked. Inclusive of the Head of Mission, no one had an ouns of experience or feel of working in government, more specially, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

That mission to this date, is still in a miss and for me it is a total waste of taxpayers’ money as it is not serving its purpose. The scenario that I have given is not limited to this particular mission, it is a trend in many other missions. In short, what the Zambian government is putting in, in terms of remuneration for the officers, does not equate to what the Zambian people benefit in terms of developmental or bilateral cooperations that these missions are supposed to bring to the country. Most of the missions are just a liability on the already burden economy of our country. There are some missions which, since their establishment as early as 1964, they have never wooed a single investor.

Neither have they arranged a state visit for the either head of states. Others have been riding on the glories that were scored by the first Zambian government in the 60s, and since then, nothing new has come up. While countries such as Kenya, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Ghana, just to mention but a few, are working around the clock to secure appointments for their Heads of State to meet prominent leaders of the world, our Heads of Missions abroad are busy syphoning state resources and championing corruption.

What a sad state of affairs! What the people of Zambia should know is these people that are sent abroad to work in this missions get a lot of money in terms of allowances, but they have literally nothing to show for the money they are getting. The question is: Should we continue funding such futile ventures at the expenses of the many viable human projects her in Zambia? Should we, as a country, continue sustaining the blotted numbers of personal in foreign mission with nothing positive and tangible results? The questions are many! From the above questions, the President should consider the following as a way forward Zambia is to get value out of the the money that is being put in these missions. The President should not treat missions abroad as dumping grounds for the useless and unneeded garbage, such as political party cadres, retired and rejected civil servants, jobless friends and relatives, political appeasement etc. He should instead treat the missions as places were “La crémé de la crémé” should be placed. What I want to bring to his attention is that, what we have as Heads of Missions in most of our missions is garbage par excellence. I want him to know that, Head of Missions should be people with a good track record, with sound experience of the civil service.

In other words, Head of Missions, being representatives of the President, should be people with a wide knowledge and a deeper understanding of issues. And because most of them have no agenda for country, they have ended up developing great appetite for corruption. Currently, there is one mission somewhere in Europe were people have smelt a rat. There is big corruption brewing in that particular mission and unfortunately the President has been dragged into this filthy corruption.

More information will be brought out on this issue soon. In this regard, there is need for the President to do a thorough and serious audit on these missions abroad. Mr. President sir, use a big torch to looking into what the ambassadors and High Commissioners are doing. Others, are just dragging your name in the mad. The other thing that Mr. President needs to do is stream line the staff placement.

The position of Press Attaché should be done away with. It is just costing the government taxpayers’ money. We equally don’t need position for economic attaché, tourism attaché, first secretary – administration, communications officer and registry officer. I have have realized that most the above mentioned positions are not there in most missions. Please, keep that way. If a mission is over staffed, let it have up 7 people including the head. The position you should never temper with is the third secretary – personal. If anything, this position should be strengthened. Let this person be from Foreign HQ, and she should be strengthened to handle press and communication issues, registry and everything that deals with administration.

This person should work with bother the Head and the deputy head. Consider combining the positions of military attaché and security. We need the money for pertinent projects back here such as education, health, and others. For press issues, let the ministry of foreign affairs constitute a press wing under the communications department of not more than 6 well experienced journalists who will be collecting news from missions abroad for publication. Send energetic heads of the likes of Emmanuel Mwamba in South Africa, and Anthony Mukwita in Germany – they are self-starters. Don’t allow Heads of Missions to influence who should be sent to work with them.

This creates a breeding ground for corruption as is the case in some missions. Pay particular attention to missions to the follow missions; The UK, USA, Russia, and Canada. See what is happening there, follow the Heads closely and see what their intentions are! And lastly, consider making use of spouses of the diplomats.

To my understanding, spouses are equally accredited to these missions abroad. Most of these spouses are well educated individuals with brilliant and developed ideas. Most of them have followed their spouses but do not do anything at all. I remember visiting one mission and met a spouse who was very well educated [Master’s Degree], very innovative, very visionary, articulate and knowledgeable.

To my opinion, they guy can contribute much better things as compared to what I saw at the mission in terms of staff. Let us tap into these people. Where possible we can contract them as locally engaged staff and pay them up to 10% of the average mission staff. This will help the country save billions of dollars! Make an audit of who is contactable among the spouses.

After all, they are also Zambians.

Senior Civil Servant