AB Bank Rwanda, which only started operations here in 2013, finds itself in a sensitive situation; that of appealing to the public that its two expatriate managers Grujic Marijana and Anne Gossner are not racist and didn’t mean to infer racial discrimination by use of the term ‘monkey officer’ in a private email correspondence that was leaked to the public. Arah Sadava, the bank’s managing director talked to The New Times’ Kenneth Agutamba.

The past few days must have been very complicated for you, what’s the first thing you want to say before I even ask you any questions?

The first thing we really want to emphasize is that the bank’s shareholders, the board and management really took the issue of racism allegations very seriously, this isn’t a light issue for us, we took immediate action and like we said in the earlier statement, we deeply apologize for whatever inconvenience and distress this incident might have caused to anyone, we are sorry.

This ‘Monkey officer’ thing, I am told your officers explained that it’s a common banking/management jargon used in Europe, and that their use of it was taken out of context, what do you know about this?

As used in other parts of the world, Monkey means ‘petty tasks’ meaning someone who would handle petty assignments, at least that’s the context in which the managers intended to use the term monkey officer.

The idea was that the staff member (Jean Maurice Akheem Bwitonzi) involved unfortunately wasn’t delivering according to the job description. There was an ongoing conversation about him which he’s very much aware of; there was a suggestion that he takes another position as a customer advisor something he rejected saying it was very low for him.

So it’s in that context that the term may have been used.

Fair enough; but for the person who leaked the emails, if you look at the contents of the leaked emails, it’s most likely the phrase ‘monkey officer’ that caught their attention; that someone could immediately suspect racism points to a special background, doesn’t it?

That’s a very intelligently put question; but we also have to consider that the correspondence, in which I was admittedly copied, was between two senior managers who understood the context of the phrase, they both had the same understanding of the term that was used.

How then, does one explain the use of the winking emoticon, ;) right after the phrase ‘monkey officer; this immediately implied some kind of a coded joke between the two managers?

Yes, it was actually meant to be a joke but a joke in the context that perhaps he should be given petty tasks, that was the background of the whole exchange, so yes, it was meant to be a joke.

In other words, you’re telling the public that there was no racism intended by your managers, right?

I could certainly assure you that there was no racism intended. And I could say this for sure that the two managers involved, although I have been here only a few months, I can vouch for their character, I don’t know them to be racist.

Marijana, for example, is married to an African and they have a half African child, that alone points to the impossibility for this lady to be racist. Anne Gossner has also worked and lived in Africa for some years now, although she could always ask to be posted to work somewhere else, she was not forced to work in Africa, she chose to be here.

What do we then make of the suspension of the two managers given your explanation that they didn’t intend any racism and that they aren’t racist in nature?

The decision to suspend them was taken by the board and, of course, I, for the simple fact that we felt this incident needed to be investigated further.

Although there’s a general understanding in the bank that there’s no racism, we believe that the incident merits an investigation and there’s one now, using our audit team here and we expect some external assistance; in accordance with our human resource policy, the first thing to do when a person is suspected of a grave offence, is to suspend the person to allow for investigations.

That makes three of your staff suspended, the two managers and Akheem, right?

In the case of Akheem, he was suspended because we suspected that he was the one that went into the emails of one of or may be two, I don’t know, of the managers and leaked those emails.

In banking, our data security is very critical and in fact the central bank has brought up this issue, that how could anybody get into the emails of the senior management. So a major concern was who could have done this?

We had a couple of reasons to initially believe that it was Akheem and we had to suspend him to investigate. The IT report came out and there wasn’t conclusive evidence to link him to the leak so I have signed a letter recalling him from suspension, he’s now at the bank.

It’s the same case with the senior managers, suspension doesn’t mean they’re guilty; we just want to get to the bottom of this without their interference.

Whether there was racism intended or not, this will obviously take some time to explain, how then do you intend to make that point to a public that has perhaps already formed negative perceptions of the bank?

Yes, it’s a difficult process and we know that it’s going to take some time but I hope that the public sees the sincerity of our apology and I would like to reiterate that apology, we truly regret it.

I can speak for the shareholders, board and management that we shall do our level best to make the public understand, through the media to help us deliver our sincere message to the public. But just to emphasise this, the board, shareholders and management take the issue of racism seriously and we promise to get to the bottom of this.

I came to your bank last week, it was tense, staff seemed to be working in fear and I got the feeling that there’s tension between senior managers and lower ranking staff, am I wrong?

I cannot confirm your observations and only because I don’t have a written report to that effect, nothing tangible at this point. But when I first took up this job in April, I went to all our branches and talked to staff members about their feelings and thoughts.

True they raised some issues such as facilitation allowances and I did promise that I would look into their concerns. Regarding the tension, no one has come and mentioned it to me.

When this email exchange happened, I was away on leave and when I came back on June 10, Bwitonzi came to speak to me asking to be dismissed.. But I believe in putting staff in positions that are in line with their abilities, I needed to know whether he was still committed to the bank.

I told him I would take his matter to management for discussion. So we had an agreement that all these HR related issues would be discussed during the meeting, it was a Thursday. Then on Monday the following week, this whole issue (leaked emails) started.

What was your immediate reaction when you saw the leaked emails?

My immediate reaction was that, what’s the truth in this? I had to speak immediately with Marijana and Anne and as I said earlier, they explained that ‘Monkey officer’ as used somewhere else meant someone to do petty assignments and knowing their personalities, I believed them.

However, it didn’t stop there; I immediately had to speak to the board and our superiors in Berlin to inform them that we had a situation here and that we should act on it immediately and that’s why you didn’t manage to see me when you came to the bank. We had to digest the implication of this to the bank.

My other concern was that, how were other staff members perceiving this? I must admit to you that amidst the public reaction, my worry was whether I still had a team at the bank. So on Tuesday, I went from one branch to another engaging staff in dialogue because I am sure you would agree with me that I had to fix my house first because the leak was an inside job that I thought pointed to an underlying problem. It was important that I figured out how big the mess was internally.

And from your interaction with staff, did you pick any lessons moving forward?

Truth is some staff came out strongly on what they thought are issues to be fixed. From all this, I gathered that we needed to make sure that we use not only professional but also effective and constructive language in the office.

Anne and Marijana agreed to this as well and they profusely apologised and also explained to the staff the context in which the phrase ‘monkey officer’ had been used.

So, would you say your house is in order now?

After a series of dialogue, I believe so. It occurred to the staff that AB Bank is not just Marijana or Anne; it is about all of us, our families and clients. I told them to give me a chance, I just got here, if we can work together, we can get better together.

We agreed to work to be part of the solution and not the problem. I believe I got their commitment to the bank’s vision and intention which is to impact lives and communities in Rwanda.

In fact, one staff said and I quote, "Whatever issues and problems we have, this has to stop right now. Everyone is talking about our bank, negatively, this is our bread and butter, let’s stop it now.” I also challenged them that each of them in the future, when you face a problem, as potential leaders, you must also propose solutions.

What kind of reaction did you receive from outside Rwanda regarding the incident?

Our shareholders, board members and business associates, none of them was happy about the incident, of course, and it was agreed that such language shouldn’t be used in the future. But they also said this is something that had to be fully investigated and findings communicated to the public.

Would you call this your worst experience as a manager?

Admittedly, this is my first experience related to PR or communication but no, this is not my worst managerial experience. I was managing AB in Liberia when Ebola struck; I don’t think there’s anything that’s more difficult than that; but we continued to work through the hard times and we posted a good performance.

How culturally inclusive is your bank, for instance, your board of directors, are they all based outside Rwanda, do we have a Rwandan on it for cultural inclusion?

Admittedly, none of the board members is Rwandan but at least two of them are based here in Rwanda; both of them are expatriates but who work closely with the government; one of them is the country director of KFW, and the other, who has just left the country recently, was consulting for the government (RDB).

The rest of the board members are based in Berlin.

As we wind this up, given what has happened, you have these two managers on suspension, but you also say they didn’t intend to use the term as a racial abuse although they admitted it was inappropriate; but you also have the bank’s image to protect, do you intend to retain these two in Rwanda or you will be calling for their transfer?

There’s going to be an investigation whose outcome remains to be seen. But to be honest with you, the shareholders are of the view that we need to do what is in the best interest of the bank.

Unfortunately, I can’t give any more details than that; we have to wait for the outcome of the investigation but I can assure you that the outcome will be a win-win situation for everyone involved in this.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw