Valletta, Malta, Apr 18, 2011 / 16:01 pm
U.S. Ambassador to Malta Doug Kmiec has offered his resignation to President Barack Obama, insisting his writings have had a “highly positive effect” on the U.S. mission.
“With the highest respect for your leadership, and with some understanding of the difficulty and complexity of the challenges that you and Secretary Clinton face each day, I ask that you accept my resignation effective on the Feast of the Assumption, 2011,” his April 13 letter said.
On April 7 the U.S. State Department’s Office of Inspector General released a 41-page audit of the embassy in Valetta which included criticism of the ambassador’s management of the embassy and his dedication to his unofficial writings.
“Based on a belief that he was given a special mandate to promote President Obama’s interfaith initiatives, he has devoted considerable time to writing articles for publication in the United States as well as in Malta,” the report said. The audit also cited the ambassador for not managing one female employee’s overtime after she logged 385 hours completing tasks for Kmiec.