13.1 |
Resources
527.
Based on
contemporaneous sources and figures provided to the Inquiry,
the
Inquiry
estimates that DFID had committed £117.8m to the humanitarian
assistance
effort by
May 2003, of which £89m had been disbursed. That
comprised:
•
£78m to UN
agencies (of which £64m had been disbursed);
•
£32m to the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Iraqi
Red
Crescent
(of which £18m had been disbursed);
•
£6.2m to
NGOs (of which £5.4m had been disbursed); and
•
£1.6m for
DFID’s bilateral effort (all of which had been
disbursed).319
528.
The Inquiry
estimates that £90m was therefore available to DFID for “recovery
and
reconstruction”
or for further contributions to the humanitarian assistance
effort.
529.
The balance of
the US$100m announced by Mr Brown on 9 April that would not
be
spent on
secondments to ORHA was also available for reconstruction and
development.
530.
The Annotated
Agenda for the 15 May meeting of the Ad Hoc Ministerial Group
on
Iraq
Rehabilitation (AHMGIR) stated that the scale of the reconstruction
challenge was
“enormous”.320
Large
projects would fall to ORHA and subsequently the Iraqi
authorities.
But there
was a case now for “smaller refurbishment projects”. Of the £10m
available
to the UK
military for QIPs only £50,000 had been spent, and of the £30m
available to
the UK
military for humanitarian relief operations in the UK’s AO, only
£3m had been
committed
and £1m spent. The remainder could be used for other
purposes.
531.
In discussion,
Mr Boateng agreed that the MOD could spend the balance
of
the £10m
allocated for QIPs, but said that “other funds for reconstruction”
had been
allocated
to DFID.321
The MOD and
DFID needed to discuss the issue.
532.
Mr Straw,
Ms Short, Mr Boateng and Mr Adam Ingram, Minister
for the Armed
Forces,
agreed on 11 March 2003 that the Global Conflict Prevention Pool
(GCPP)
should
retain a large reserve (of £10m) and a large Quick Response Fund
(£5m) to
“allow for”
an Iraq Strategy focused on conflict prevention.322
533.
On 10 April,
Ms Philippa Drew, FCO Director Global Issues, informed
Mr Dominick
Chilcott,
the Head of the IPU, that her Directorate – which managed the GCPP,
the
FCO’s
Environment Fund and the FCO’s Global Opportunities Fund (GOF) –
was now
receiving
requests for funding for Iraq.323
It was
difficult to assess those requests in the
absence of
an “agreed post‑conflict strategy” for Iraq and “some idea of where
other
319
Letter Amos
to Boateng, 10 September 2003, ‘Iraq Reconstruction Funding:
Reserve Claim’;
Paper DFID,
4 November 2009, ‘Iraq – DFID Timeline and Financial Commitments:
2003 – 2009’.
320
Annotated
Agenda, 15 May 2003, Ad Hoc Group on Iraq Rehabilitation
meeting.
321
Minutes, 15
May 2003, Ad Hoc Group on Iraq Rehabilitation meeting.
322
Minute Drew
to Gass, 26 March 2003, ‘Iraq and the Global Conflict Prevention
Pool’.
323
Minute Drew
to Chilcott, 10 April 2003, ‘Iraq: Applications for
Funds’.
531