15.1 | Civilian
personnel
•
targeting
secondments to other CPA ministry teams more
precisely;
•
increasing
working level support for CPA governance and the foreign, health
and
culture
ministries;
•
appointing
a senior figure to lead CPA(South), where there were already 15
UK
secondees;
•
continuing
provision of two officials to CPA(North), including the Chief of
Staff;
•
continuing
provision of the Chief of Staff in CPA(South Central) and a
cultural
expert at
the Babylon archaeological site; and
•
leadership
of four of the 18 CPA Governorate Teams (GTs) scheduled to
begin
operations
in September, with deployment starting in late August.
146.
The IPU
reported that Mr Andy Bearpark, CPA Operations Director and
senior
UK secondee
to the CPA, advised against concentrating the UK contribution to
GTs in
the four
southern governorates on the grounds that an all‑UK sector might
have more
difficulty
in accessing funds from Baghdad. He advised that a spread of
representation
would also
give the UK sight of developments across Iraq.
147.
The AHMGIR
agreed that the UK should shift emphasis over time from
regional
areas of
operation to governorates. Ministers requested firm recommendations
for the
148.
The briefing
for the 24 July meeting of the AHMGIR explained that GT
security
was the
responsibility of the local Coalition military, but that the UK was
likely to have
to provide
additional security to fulfil its duty of care to UK GT
members.97
There
would
be
“significant resource implications”. DFID had undertaken to fund
the set‑up costs
of GTs
in Maysan, Muthanna and Dhi Qar and running costs to the end of
October 2003.
The CPA
would assume liability for all costs from 1 November.
149.
The AHMGIR
agreed that the UK would offer to lead four GTs, two in
the
South‑East,
one in the Kurdish area and one elsewhere in the Sunni area, “but
not in
the less
stable central areas around Baghdad”.98
150.
At the AHMGIR,
Mr Straw asked the Cabinet Office and the IPU to devise
a
debriefing
system for secondees to Iraq, “to garner their experience … and to
ensure
that their
contribution was recognised on their return to home departments”.
Ministers
agreed that
officials should provide a report on the results.
151.
On 25 July,
Sir Michael Jay updated Sir Andrew Turnbull and
Permanent
Secretaries
on civilian deployments.99
Sir Michael
explained that, since his request for
volunteers
on 22 April, the Government had trained and deployed “over 100
civilian staff
96
Minutes, 17
July 2003, Ad Hoc Group on Iraq Rehabilitation
meeting.
97 Annotated
Agenda, 24 July 2003, Ad Hoc Group on Iraq Rehabilitation
meeting.
98
Minutes, 24
July 2003, Ad Hoc Group on Iraq Rehabilitation
meeting.
99
Letter Jay
to Turnbull, 25 July 2003, ‘Iraq: UK support for
reconstruction’.
269