The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
•
The UK
would pay salaries, additional allowances and transport costs to
and
from
theatre, on the assumption that ORHA would cover accommodation
and
all other
in‑country costs.
•
All
departments would pay the salaries of their own staff. The MOD,
DFID
and the FCO
would pick up additional costs for their staff. Other
departments’
additional
costs would be met through the allocation of a portion of the
UK’s
reconstruction
budget to the FCO (see Section 13.1).
•
FCO
security advisers would assess the security risk in Baghdad as
soon
as
possible.
•
The IPU
would inform ORHA that the UK understood that its secondees
would
receive the
same medical, evacuation and emergency response package
as
US
staff.
•
A similar
understanding would be needed “in due course” between the MOD
and
other
departments, covering Multi‑National Division (South‑East)
(MND(SE)).
•
The FCO,
DFID and the MOD would be responsible for recruiting their own
staff.
The Cabinet
Office, in liaison with IPU and DFID, would select staff put
forward
by other
departments.
•
The FCO
would arrange medical examinations and inoculations for
secondees
and issue
formal letters of appointment and terms and
conditions.61
94.
The FCO
informed No.10 on 25 April that members of the 20‑strong UK
contingent
with ORHA
in Kuwait had arrived in Baghdad.62
It
explained that 12 more civilian and
military
secondees were expected to arrive in Baghdad by 5 May. Secondees’
roles
were still
unclear, partly because of continuing uncertainty about ORHA’s own
role.
The FCO
was:
“…
instructing them to take a flexible, pragmatic approach to their
work, aiming
to be
proactive in identifying how they can best add value in support of
Coalition
Phase IV
objectives. We are also requesting this first wave to report back
with early
recommendations
for deeper UK engagement in specific areas.”
95.
Ms Emma Sky,
CPA Governorate Co‑ordinator for Kirkuk from June 2003
to
February
2004, told the Inquiry that she was not given a briefing by the FCO
before
travelling
to Iraq. Instead she had received a phone call telling her “You’ve
spent a lot
of time
in the Middle East. You will be fine.” 63
61
Minute Dodd
to Manning, 25 April 2003, ‘ORHA: Practical Arrangements for UK
Secondees’.
62
Letter Owen
to Rycroft, 25 April 2003, ‘Iraq: ORHA’.
63
Private
hearing, 14 January 2011, page 2.
260