FOREIGN MINISTER UNDER FIRE

C O N F I D E N T I A L FREETOWN 000518

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/22/2019
TAGS: PREL PGOV SL
SUBJECT: FOREIGN MINISTER UNDER FIRE

REF: A. FREETOWN 64

B. FREETOWN 449

Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Glenn Fedzer for Reason 1.4 (B)


1. (C) Summary: Foreign Minister Zainab Bangura appears
increasingly at risk of losing her job in the next cabinet
reshuffle, with corruption charges, frequent absences from
Freetown, and incompetence cited by the media as the leading
reasons. Her favored position with the President (reftel A)
may help her survive, and the corruption charges are mild by
Sierra Leonean standards (and possibly fabricated),but her
inability to manage her own Ministry may force Koroma's hand,
and a rumored return to a UN position could provide a
graceful exit. Bangura has been a supportive, if not always
effective, advocate of good bilateral relations with the
United States; her departure would remove a friend of the
Embassy from Cabinet, but may result in a replacement better
able to translate moral support into concrete policy
decisions. End Summary.


2. (C) Speculation that Foreign Minister (FM) Zainab Hawa
Bangura may be gone in the next cabinet reshuffle has
surfaced again; she was already the subject of speculation
regarding a cabinet reshuffle a year ago, with Minister of
Information I.B. Kargbo rumored as a possible replacement.
She survived, but her frequent trips overseas (not all
official trips) and perceived inaction within the Ministry
has removed her from the pedestal upon which she sat earlier
in the Koroma administration. A November 12 public letter to
President Koroma from John Benjamin, chairman of the
opposition Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP),accusing
Bangura of corruption, and press claims that she is looking
to oppose Koroma in the 2012 election, have re-ignited rumors
of her impending departure, although much of the information
swirling in the media is almost certainly concocted.


3. (C) Benjamin's extensive letter detailing a series of
accusations ranging from plausible to absurd the day before
the Consultative Group (CG) meeting in London (REFTEL B) had
the clear but unsuccessful intention to cast a shadow on the
administration's image in advance of its pleas to donors for
additional funds. In the letter, he accused the Foreign
Minister of diverting a shipment of rice donated by India and
intended for sale to the public, to Dubai, where it was sold
for personal profit. Though the allegations have never been
substantiated, attempts by the FM to discredit them in the
media backfired, as it garnered enough attention to spur the
Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to launch an investigation.


4. (C) Allegations of corruption have been accompanied by
assertions that the FM has squirreled away funds from her
overseas trips to finance a run for President in 2012. She
is also accused of poaching Presidential allies to support
her in the race. These and allegations of further corruption
-- she purportedly embezzled funds earmarked for Hajj
pilgrims from the Moroccan government and the International
Islamic Organization -- surfaced while she herself was in
Saudi Arabia performing the Hajj, so her reactions were
delayed and again ineffective, although her lack of support
within the ruling All People's Congress (APC) makes a
campaign highly unlikely.


5. (C) Accusations of mismanagement of the Foreign
Ministry appear more valid, and even come from Bangura
herself. During a 24 December meeting concerning UN votes
with the CDA (a meeting that took nearly three weeks to
arrange due to repeated last minute cancellations by the FM),
Bangura spent the first twenty minutes asserting the
incompetence of her own civil service employees (two of whom
were present for the harangue),and her demands to President
Koroma for a budget increase to hire competent people. She
was frustrated that Sierra Leonean diplomats posted abroad
were making decisions without reference to her policies, and
in the case of UN votes, claimed the delegate had failed to
send a list of upcoming votes to the Minister as ordered. In
answer to CDA's concern about her inaccessibility, she said
numerous other foreign diplomats had complained about it to
her, including a group of all Freetown-based African
diplomats who approached her jointly to register their
concerns. She did not, however, posit an excuse or any
intent to remedy the situation, instead reiterating her
condemnation of her own staff.


6. (C) Bangura's civil service employees are in agreement
that there is something wrong at the Ministry, but after two
years with her as Minister, contacts in the Ministry blame
her micromanagment and refusal to delegate decision-making
authority, which paralyzes the Ministry during Bangura's
frequent foreign trips. They further complain that the
Minister is ineffective within Cabinet, citing one discussion
(on a SOFA agreement with the U.S.),where she acquiesced to
the Attorney General's demand for another month to review the

text even though Bangura had been briefed minutes earlier
that the AG had signed a letter saying he had a already
reviewed the document. A copy of the AG's letter was
included in Bangura's material for the meeting.


7. (C) COMMENT: Bangura came to government after many years
as an international staff member for the UN, and lacks
political ties with the APC party insiders who dominate the
Cabinet. Before joining the government, she served with the
UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) as a P5, earning a salary
between USD 104,600 and USD 131,019. As a cabinet minister
in Sierra Leone, she likely earns less than a quarter of her
prior salary. Whether or not allegations of corruption prove
true, her relationship with the President might not be enough
to secure her position much longer. A Presidential adviser
told CDA that the UN may be lining up a job for her to work
on gender issues, which would provide President Koroma an
easy way to transition her out of the FM position without
losing face. Bangura has been a reliable, if recently
inaccessible and ineffective, partner on some key U.S.
policies, most notably with Kosovo's independence, the
Bilateral Maritime Assistance Agreement, and the return of
the Peace Corps, but her management style has begun to
seriously limit her ability to advance our bilateral
relations and policy goals in Sierra Leone. END COMMENT
FEDZER