The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
from
sixteen different branches of government”, an exercise he described
as having
“no modern
precedent”:
“We now
have 65 UK public servants working in the CPA Headquarters in
Baghdad,
and nearly
30 in the CPA South‑East Office in Basra … Small numbers are
also
working in
the CPA offices in central and northern Iraq.”
152.
Sir Michael
reported that Ministers had decided the UK would
maintain
“approximately
the current level of overall commitment” with a focus in Baghdad
on
SSR, the
economic ministries and the oil sector, a “stronger lead” in
CPA(South) and
leadership
of four CPA GTs.
153.
Sir Michael
explained that the FCO had set up a liaison office in
Baghdad
working to
Mr Sawers and a CPA Operations Team (CPA‑OT) in the IPU to put
the
UK’s
secondments on “a focused and sustainable basis, and provide
secondees with
the
appropriate support for service in what will remain a difficult and
unpredictable
environment”.
The CPA‑OT would “debrief the first group of secondees as they
return
to ensure
we learn the right lessons from their experiences on the
ground”.
154.
Sir Michael
advised:
“We will
continue to need to provide good human resources if the CPA is to
succeed.
As
reconstruction proceeds we expect more of this requirement to be
met with staff
engaged
under contract from outside HMG. But we will continue to have a
need to
second
staff with specialist skills from our own public service. The new
machinery
in Baghdad
and the IPU will enable us to match requirements and resources
more
exactly.”
155.
Sir Michael
wrote separately to Sir Nigel Crisp, Permanent Secretary at
the
Department
of Health (DoH), to thank the DoH team in Basra for its “major
contribution
to the
re‑establishment of a functioning health system”, which had been
“out of all
proportion”
to its numbers.100
156.
Sir Michael
also wrote to Sir Robin Young, Permanent Secretary at the
Department
of Trade
and Industry (DTI), who had raised concerns about security and
staff salaries.101
Sir Michael
explained that, after the assessment of security in Baghdad and
Basra, the
FCO had
taken urgent action that should allow it to fulfil its duty of care
to staff. Working
and living
conditions were also improving and were now “quite reasonable (and
are
compensated
by a good allowances package)”.
157.
On salaries,
Sir Michael explained to Sir Robin Young that the terms
under which
the FCO
received funding from the Treasury for CPA deployments prevented it
paying
the
salaries of staff seconded from other departments. He hoped that
“the priority given
to the
reconstruction of Iraq at every level from the Prime Minister down
will convince
100
Letter Jay
to Crisp, 25 July 2003, ‘Iraq volunteers’.
101
Letter Jay
to Young, 25 July 2003, ‘Iraq: volunteers’.
270