15.1 | Civilian
personnel
294.
Mr Straw
sent Mr Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, an
indication
of the
estimated costs of post‑transition representation on 11 February as
the basis
for
detailed discussions between FCO and Treasury
officials.207
Combined
annual
running
costs for the three bilateral offices were estimated at £37.1m,
including
£21.7m (58.5 percent
of the total) for security.
295.
Mr Straw
attached a paper setting out the proposed functions of the three
offices
and
estimated staff numbers for Baghdad and Basra:
•
Baghdad: 78
resident UK staff (including police and MOD advisers), up
to
20 visiting
contractors and DFID staff during peak activity, and 55‑56 local
staff;
and
•
Basra: 81
resident UK staff (including police), 10 visiting contractors
and
30 local staff.
296.
The
expectation was that it should be possible to reduce UK
representation as
Iraq
stabilised.
297.
The paper
stated that office infrastructure and key staff should be in place
by
the end of
June. Recruitment of staff and development of sites would begin as
soon
as
agreement had been reached with the US on a number of issues,
including the
use of
potential sites. The plan was to recruit staff for one year if
possible, six months
renewable
if necessary. Recruitment would not be easy. As one incentive, the
FCO
planned to
give staff the option of having their families in
Kuwait.
298.
The paper also
stated that the FCO had created a project management
team
in London,
which had set up a cross‑Whitehall Transition Project Management
Group
including
representatives of interested government departments. An FCO
officer had
been
seconded to the State Department transition team and a UK civilian
was a member
of the CPA
Transition Team.
299.
Sir Kevin
Tebbit explained the arrangements for looking after civilian
personnel in
Iraq to
Sir Andrew Turnbull and Permanent Secretaries on 21 April
2004.208
There
were
two
categories of civilian employee: MOD civilians deployed as part of
Op TELIC, and
other staff
and contractors, either seconded to the CPA or deployed directly to
Iraq,
who were
“under the wing of IraqRep”.
300.
Sir Kevin
explained:
“… the
70‑80 MOD civil servants deployed at any one time in direct support
of
Operation
TELIC effectively enjoy the same protection as the military,
alongside
whom they
live and work. They would be unlikely to have to leave, but if they
were,
the
arrangements would be made through the Permanent Joint
Headquarters
which is
part of their reporting chain and also ‘owns’ the military
transport assets.
This would
be fairly straightforward given the numbers involved.
207
Letter
Straw to Chancellor of the Exchequer, 11 February 2004, ‘Iraq:
Post‑Transition Representation’.
208
Letter
Tebbit to Turnbull, 21 April 2004, [untitled].
295