The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
478.
The CPA issued
a further regulation on 18 June, detailing the operation of
the
PRB.261
Voting
members of the PRB included representatives of the Iraqi Ministry
of
Finance and
the UK. Non-voting members included the representatives of the
IMF,
World Bank,
UN SRSG and the International Advisory and Monitoring Board
(IAMB).
479.
An IPU update
on reconstruction, which was sent to No.10 on 20 June,
advised
that the
DFI Regulations “met some, but not all of our key
requirements”.262
480.
The FCO’s
covering letter to that update cited the DFI Regulations as one
example
of the
continuing lack of proper consultation with the UK by the US, but
added that the
Regulations
did not cross the UK’s “legal red lines”.
481.
The UK’s
efforts to scrutinise disbursements from the DFI are considered
in
Section
10.3.
482.
Ministers
agreed the UK’s first plan for reconstruction in CPA(South) on 12
June.
Although
the focus remained on securing US and CPA(Baghdad) resources, the
plan
provided
limited, additional UK support for CPA(South) and QIPs. The plan
identified a
need to
agree a source of UK funding to meet the costs of being an
Occupying Power,
until other
(US or Iraqi) sources of funding became available.
483.
A 12 June PJHQ
briefing reported that there was “a trend of intelligence
reporting
from the UK
AOR showing increasing dissatisfaction of the civil
populace”.263
The
briefing
attributed that to a lack of food, failure to ensure essential
services “such as
water,
electricity and security”, a general increase in anti-Coalition
rhetoric from Shia
clerics, a
lack of accurate information/news reporting, and a lack of progress
in the
political
process.
484.
The 12 June
meeting of the AHMGIR, which was attended by Baroness
Amos,
Mr Benn
and senior DFID officials, considered a joint DFID/MOD paper
entitled ‘UK
Support to
the CPA South Area – Next Steps’.264
The paper
was the response to the
commission
from the 15 May and 22 May meetings of the AHMGIR for an
operational
plan for
reconstruction in CPA(South).
485.
The paper
began by identifying key actions required to make progress
in
the
South:
•
clarifying
CPA(South)’s remit, and making it fully operational;
261
Coalition
Provisional Authority, Regulation No.3, 18 June 2003,
Program
Review Board.
262
Letter Owen
to Rycroft, 20 June 2003, ‘Iraq: Reconstruction Priorities’
attaching Paper IPU, 20 June
2003, ‘Iraq
Reconstruction: 30 Day Priorities, 5 June 2003’.
263
Minute
DACOS J3(Ops Sp) and DACOS J2(Int) to MA/DCJO(Ops), 12 June 2003,
‘Relations with the
Basrah
Population’.
264 Annotated
Agenda, 12 June 2003, Ad Hoc Group on Iraq Rehabilitation meeting
attaching Paper
DFID/MOD,
11 June 2003, ‘UK Support to the CPA South Area – Next
Steps’.
86