The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
136.
Sir Michael
Jay, FCO Permanent Under Secretary (PUS), discussed the
Whitehall
machinery
for overseeing reconstruction with Sir Andrew Turnbull on 27
March.88
137.
Sir Andrew
Turnbull suggested “a Cabinet Committee chaired by the
Foreign
Secretary
which would settle all the fundamental key questions about the
reconstruction
of Iraq
(e.g. what sort of political system)”, with sub-committees looking
at specific
issues. He
would ask Mr Bowen to come up with a proposal.
138.
Sir Michael
said that it was important that the Foreign Secretary was “clearly
in the
lead”, that
DFID reconstruction activity was “restrained until the ‘big
picture’ decisions”
had been
taken, and that the IPU was included in the
architecture.
139.
Sir Michael
Jay wrote to Mr Straw later that day, proposing improvements
to
Whitehall
co-ordination on reconstruction.89
Sir Michael
repeated his concern, prompted
by a
conversation with Mr Chakrabarti, that DFID was “still hankering
after the leadership
of the Iraq
reconstruction agenda”. Sir Michael had discussed this concern with
Sir
Andrew
Turnbull, who had agreed that “it was right that the FCO should
take the overall
Whitehall
lead on reconstruction”. The “ideal structure” would
be:
“– a
Cabinet Committee chaired by you [Mr Straw] to oversee the
overall
reconstruction
effort in Iraq;
– a senior
officials’ committee chaired by Desmond Bowen or David
Manning,
which would
feed into the Ministerial Group; and oversee the work of a series
of
sub‑groups,
each dealing with specific aspects of the reconstruction agenda
…”
140.
Sir Michael
concluded:
“It would
obviously be helpful if you could secure the Prime Minister’s
endorsement
for our
approach in advance. We cannot guarantee that Clare Short will
accept it
without
argument.”
141.
Later on 27
March, Mr Bowen sent Sir Andrew Turnbull a draft minute
addressed
to Mr
Blair, recommending the creation of an “Ad Hoc Ministerial Group on
Iraq
Reconstruction”
chaired by Mr Straw.90
Mr Bowen
advised that he had opted for an ad
hoc group
because it was “inherently more flexible and less ponderous than a
formal
sub-group
of DOP [the Ministerial Committee on Defence and Overseas
Policy]”.
142.
Mr Jim
Drummond, Assistant Head (Foreign Affairs) OD Sec, sent
Mr Bowen some
first
thoughts on the “reconstruction agenda” for the new Ministerial
Group on 28 March:
•
humanitarian
assistance;
•
role of
ORHA: “competence and UK links with and involvement
in”;
88
Minute
Warren, 27 March 2003, ‘Sir Michael Jay Bilateral, 27
March’.
89
Minute Jay
to Secretary of State [FCO], 27 March 2003, ‘Iraq: Reconstruction:
Whitehall Co-ordination’.
90
Minute
Bowen to Turnbull, 27 March 2003, ‘Iraq: Reconstruction’ attaching
Minute [draft] Turnbull to
Prime
Minister, [undated], ‘Iraq Reconstruction’.
26