An Iraqi cleaner and two cooks claim that a culture of sexual harassment, abuse and bullying exists at the British Embassy in Baghdad.
The middle-aged cleaner told The Times that a British contractor with KBR, the company hired to maintain the embassy's premises, offered to double her daily pay if she would stay the night with him. When she refused, she said, her pay was cut and she was later dismissed.
The Iraqis accuse the embassy of leaving the abuse unchallenged and failing adequately to respond to complaints against several British managers for KBR. The company was allowed to conduct its own inquiry, an arrangement criticised as a very serious conflict of interest.
The complainants "“ the cleaner and two male cooks who worked in the embassy canteen "“ say that some KBR managers groped Iraqi staff regularly, paid or otherwise rewarded them for sex and dismissed those who refused or spoke out.
The British Embassy heard the complaints initially but left KBR to investigate; a KBR report found that there was no case to answer.
The three Iraqis lost their jobs at the embassy, in the Green Zone. They spoke to The Times in the hope that the Foreign Office would conduct an independent inquiry.
The allegations, outlined in testimonies taken by embassy officials last June and obtained by this newspaper, describe a culture of sexual harassment. The cleaner said that on one occasion her manager "threw many $100 notes on the desk and said, 'take whatever you want and stay overnight and I will pay you double [your daily pay]'. "
KBR "“ a global engineering and services company that has a similar contract to provide catering and cleaning services to the US Embassy in Baghdad "“ denies the claims. In an e-mail to The Times sent from its Houston headquarters, it said that there was no evidence to support the allegations.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We've discussed [the investigation] with KBR in detail and are satisfied."
The Iraqi claimants say that they were never interviewed by KBR investigators. They told The Times that their KBR managers accused them of "poor work" and "lying". The managers, who denied the charges, were reinstated after month-long suspensions with pay. There are no claims of wrongdoing against staff directly employed by the embassy.
Samer Muscati, a former employee of Adam Smith International (ASI), a consultancy hired by the Department for International Development and based in the embassy, said that the cleaner approached him.
She first went to embassy officials after she was sacked last May. She had worked at the compound for two years and said that she had been forced out for refusing to spend the night with her KBR manager.
Two men, Nasser and Hassan, who worked for KBR in the embassy canteen, supported her allegations. Asked by The Times why no one else came forward, Nasser said: "There is no work outside so everyone is worried about their jobs." They said they felt compelled to speak out because the cleaner was an honourable woman.
On June 5 and 6, 2007, the three Iraqis were interviewed by embassy officials, including Matthew Lodge, then Britain's Deputy Head of Mission in Iraq. According to a record of that meeting seen by The Times, Mr Lodge said that the testimonies would be treated in "complete confidence", encouraging the witnesses to speak openly. He also indicated that the embassy was responsible for "ensuring that the behaviour of all staff on embassy premises was acceptable".
A few days later KBR's local manager called the two men into his office. Hassan and Nasser were sent home on paid leave and later sacked.
The testimonies collected by Mr Lodge were given to Dominic Asquith, then the Ambassador, and forwarded to the Foreign Office in London. Mr Lodge and Mr Asquith did not reply to requests for comment. Steve Bird, a Foreign Office spokesman in London, said the investigation was handed over to KBR because the allegations involved "KBR staff against KBR staff".
Mr Bird described KBR's investigation as "thorough and professional".
He said that it was his understanding that the Iraqi claimants had testified to KBR. However, the three told The Times that they were never contacted by the company. Their claims are backed up by staff at the ASI consultancy, which examined KBR's findings.
A memo, sent by a senior ASI consultant to Mr Lodge and seen by The Times, criticised KBR's investigation, saying that as well as failing to interview the Iraqis the company had also omitted to talk to other senior embassy officials who had interviewed the cleaner when she first made her claim.
KBR's report stated that "we have found no evidence to support the claims of serious sexual harassment", according to ASI.
KBR would not respond to questions about its investigation or its conclusions. Employees of KBR have been implicated previously in alleged sexual assaults on their American female colleagues in Iraq.
Mr Muscati's ASI team lobbied the Foreign Office to reopen the investigation, to no avail. He said: "It's not just shocking that KBR was given the authority to investigate itself, but that the embassy accepted its findings at face value. We've tried to seek redress, but they've stonewalled us."
The Times tracked down the cleaner to her tiny flat. She reiterated the allegations she says she made to embassy officials last June. "I suffered this aggression under the British flag," she said. "I felt like I had been destroyed."
The Iraqis claimed that KBR managers bribed other workers to ensure that investigators heard a one-sided version of events. "Why didn't they call us to tes-tify?" Nasser asked. "I would have asked to be given a lie-detector test to see whether I am telling the truth."
After the cleaner's dismissal, but before KBR investigators arrived in Baghdad, Mr Lodge wrote a letter of recommendation on her behalf. Mr Lodge wrote that she was "recognised as hard-working and industrious "“ the local KBR manager described her to me as a 'good worker'."