An ex-Foreign Office official who blew the whistle on the department’s “chaotic” handling of last year’s Afghanistan evacuation has called for an overhaul of the system for reporting wrongdoing in the civil service, saying existing mechanisms “lack rigour”.
Raphael Marshall, who spoke out in December against the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Officet’s handling of the Afghanistan crisis in August, said the civil service code must be updated to strengthen whistleblowing systems in Whitehall
Marshall, who was an HEO-grade desk officer at the FCDO during the Kabul crisis, has called for the government to revamp the civil service code to make civil servants’ responsibility to be effective clearer in a ConservativeHome opinion piece.
Marshall wrote to FCDO permanent secretary Sir Philip Barton in August, stating that the flaws in the department’s Afghanistan crisis response amounted to breaches of the code and that he intended to resign to provide evidence to the Foreign Affairs Committee. He said Barton met him the same day and appointed a senior diplomat to investigate.
“In this regard, he fulfilled his obligations to the letter,” Marshall said.
The investigation concluded that there had been no breach of the civil service code.
Marshall then sent written evidence to the Foreign Affairs Committee in December, saying that efforts to evacuate vulnerable Afghans during the fall of Kabul this summer were undermined by understaffing, unclear guidance and poor processes.
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