*US Embassy in Harare Caught in 10-Year Illegal Cash Scheme - A Blatant Breach of Protocol* For over a decade, the United States Embassy in Harare quietly operated outside the law, paying its locally employed staff in hard cash - to the tune of millions of US dollars - without the mandatory approval from Washington. This wasn’t a clerical oversight or an isolated misstep; it was a sustained, deliberate evasion of Treasury Department regulations dating back to 2015. According to a damning report by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) in the US State Department, the embassy defied clear guidelines requiring annual authorisation from the Bureau of African Affairs to pay staff in foreign currency. Yet, for ten years, the embassy failed to produce a single document showing that such authorisation was ever sought, let alone granted. The embassy simply operated as if US laws and internal accountability mechanisms didn’t apply in Zimbabwe - an astonishingly arrogant and unlawful posture from an institution that claims to champion the rule of law abroad. Even more insulting is the embassy’s feeble justification: that Zimbabwe’s economic volatility and government unpredictability forced them to bypass Washington. This is not a reason - it is an excuse, and a lazy one at that. Internal instability in a host country does not grant foreign missions the right to unilaterally rewrite the rules set by their own governments. If anything, such volatility calls for greater accountability - not secretive, unsanctioned transactions totalling nearly US$25 million in just one fiscal year. The report also exposes the financial recklessness of the embassy’s actions. From FY2023 to FY2024 alone, the embassy wasted over US$276,000 on bank fees for cash replenishments. That’s taxpayer money bled dry to fund an unlawful workaround - while 84% of the same employees were already receiving part of their pay through legal, electronic means. This was not a case of necessity - it was a culture of impunity. A US mission, on foreign soil, operating a shadow payroll with no accountability and zero compliance, for ten straight years. It raises serious legal and ethical questions not just in Zimbabwe, but back home in the United States. Who authorised this? Who looked the other way? And why are the individuals responsible not being held to account? The United States owes the world an explanation - and the embassy in Harare owes Zimbabwe an apology. Source: https://x.com/dereckgoto/status/1924763517829169203