Despite relying exclusively on her own private email system during her time in office, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ousted the U.S. ambassador to Kenya in 2012 in part for the same offense.
An August 2012 inspector general report revealed former Ambassador Scott Gration had set up an unsecured network in the bathroom of his embassy office and encouraged his staff to use commercial email in a move that drew State Department ire, the Federalist reported Thursday.
Gration’s use of an unauthorized email system to conduct government business broke agency protocol, the watchdog report said.
“The ambassador’s requirements for use of commercial email in the office and his flouting of direct instructions to adhere to department policy have placed the information management staff in a conundrum: balancing the desire to be responsive to their mission leader and the need to adhere to department regulations and government information security standards,” the inspector general said.
“The ambassador compounded the problem on several occasions by publicly berating members of the staff, attacking them personally, loudly questioning their competence, and threatening career-ending disciplinary actions.”
The report spelled out a State Department position against its officials using private systems to send government emails.
“It is the department’s general policy that normal day-to-day operations be conducted on an authorized information system, which has the proper level of security controls. The use of unauthorized information systems increases the risk for data loss, phishing, and spoofing of email accounts, as well as inadequate protections for personally identifiable information,” the inspector general said.
“The use of unauthorized information systems can also result in the loss of official public records as these systems do not have approved record preservation or backup functions,” the report continued. “Conducting official business on non-department automated information systems must be limited to only maintaining communications during emergencies.”
Before his departure, Gration was roundly criticized for his confrontational leadership style, which prompted a number of his employees to quit the embassy.
