15.1 | Civilian personnel

over decisions and policy” (see Section 10.1).408 Two “senior people” were joining the

CPA Oil Team, including Mr Terry Adams as the CPA Oil Technical Expert. The CPA

had welcomed Mr Adams’ appointment, but had been “less than enthusiastic” about the

second UK appointment.

630. TPUK informed Mr Blair on 10 October that the DTI’s efforts to understand

and influence CPA policy on oil and gas had been “consistently unsuccessful” until

Mr Adams’ arrival. Mr Adams’ appointment had improved the DTI’s understanding to

some extent, although officials believed that the CPA had restricted Mr Adams’ access

to information and decision‑making meetings.409

631. On 14 October Ministers were informed that Mr Adams was “routinely excluded

from some meetings”.410

632. A further instance of US resistance to senior UK appointments occurred in January

2004, when the Iraq Senior Officials Group concluded that, given the US lead in the

media sector, there was little scope for UK involvement, and that the US was resisting

the secondment of senior UK staff (see Section 10.1).411

633. At the end of January 2004, the US asked for UK help in staffing the Program

Management Office (PMO) that had been set up to oversee CPA reconstruction funds

(see Section 10.1).412

634. UKTI contracted two individuals to work in the PMO, initially for three months.

The first deployed in early March 2004, the second in early April.413

635. In early June, UKTI began considering whether to continue to fund the two

contractors.414

636. A UKTI official set out the arguments for Mr Mike O’Brien, FCO Parliamentary

Under Secretary of State, on 21 June:

“We can claim indirect benefit to UK plc from these consultants, but it is difficult to

quantify any direct commercial benefit. PMO procurement still (rightly) has to go

through a full competitive process … But these consultancies have earned us a

great deal of goodwill from PMO senior management, ensured a UK voice at the

highest levels of the organisation, and [have been] a useful but unacknowledged

source of commercial information.”415

408 Annotated Agenda, 7 August 2003, Ad Hoc Group on Iraq Rehabilitation meeting.

409 Letter Zimmer to Rycroft, 10 October 2003, ‘Iraq: Update on Commercial Issues’ attaching Paper UKTI,

10 October 2003, ‘Iraq: Update on Commercial Issues’.

410 Annotated Agenda, 14 October 2003, Ad Hoc Group on Iraq Rehabilitation meeting.

411 Letter Cabinet Office [junior official] to Sheinwald, 8 January 2004, ‘Iraq: senior officials group’.

412 Minute UKTI [junior official] to PS/Sir Stephen Brown, 2 July 2004, [untitled].

413 Minute UKTI [junior official] to PS/O’Brien, 21 June 2004, [untitled].

414 Minute Lusty to Fletcher, 9 June 2004, ‘Iraq: UKTI consultancy support for the PMO’.

415 Minute UKTI [junior official] to PS/Mr O’Brien, 21 June 2004, [untitled].

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