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{
    "id": 1086046,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1086046/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 112,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Endebess, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr.) Robert Pukose",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1458,
        "legal_name": "Robert Pukose",
        "slug": "robert-pukose"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for allowing me to contribute to this very important Bill. Michael Jordan once said that talent wins games, but intelligence and team work win championships. I congratulate the Hon. Chairperson for giving good guidance to his team and for coming up with this Bill at this time in history. Apparently, we have good and bad people within our foreign offices. However, as currently constituted, our foreign officers working there have done a commendable job in most cases wherever we have been. Even when you go to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs here, you find that the people working there are very courteous, welcoming and are willing to give you advice. Another time when I went there to follow up on the passport for my son who is studying in Canada, I got a lot of overwhelming support both in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs here and also in our Embassy in Canada. I appreciate the good work that some of them are doing. This Bill is very timely because it is putting our Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a more professional way. It is laying down a law on how people even the ambassadors are going to be recruited as well as the staff and those who are going to be seconded. Some of our people who have worked in the foreign offices have had very bad experiences. More often, you find that when regimes change, even those who work as ambassadors in some of the foreign countries, after the expiry of their appointments, some of them end up being left out without good payment packages. Some are posted in other places after serving the country diligently and faithfully. You find that somebody has been an ambassador in a foreign country, but when regimes change, this person is just recalled and left out depending on who his or her godfather is. That kind of culture has to come to an end. This Bill will make sure that we have a way of addressing the issues faced by our officers within the foreign offices in various embassies. When they are called back, where are they going to be placed? That is a very important thing. The Bill outlines those who are going to be the staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and how they will be placed. If somebody is going to be an ambassador, he or she will have to go to the Foreign Service Academy. They will be taught for a certain period of time. We have seen in other countries where this is happening. People are going to be placed based on their performance. They will have some kind of code of conduct in as far as foreign offices are concerned. To me, this is a Bill that will streamline our Ministry of Foreign Affairs and make sure that it is run professionally and in the best interest of the country. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}