The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
“expenditure
overlaps” and alleviate the pressure on CPA(Baghdad) to resolve
the
problem of
transferring resources to the regions.
748.
Mr Boateng
replied to Baroness Amos’ request for £40m from the Reserve
on
25 September.409
He agreed
to provide an additional £6.5m from the Reserve to
cover
immediate
further needs in Iraq, but rejected the request to earmark £33.5m
for DFID’s
anticipated
future needs, citing “recent reports that … [US] sources of funding
are now
starting to
be unblocked”.
749.
In his
evidence to the Inquiry, Sir Suma Chakrabarti suggested that the
exchange
had not
occurred in isolation:
“We had
discussions [with] the Treasury but it was quite obvious to us that
they
weren’t
going to give any more than they already had … They had put some
money
in upfront
[in late March 2003, for humanitarian assistance], but, after that,
they said
it is time
to reprioritise.”410
750.
Sir Nicholas
Macpherson, Director General in charge of Public Expenditure
from
2001 to
2005 and then Permanent Secretary at the Treasury, told the Inquiry
that,
although it
was “totally open” to Baroness Amos to challenge that response, she
did
not.411
He pointed
out that the US$100m announced by Mr Brown in his 9 April
budget
statement
was never fully claimed by departments.
751.
In a video
conference with President Bush on 16 September, Mr Blair
commented
that
Mr Thatcher had now set out a “shopping list” for the Iraqi
Media Network, costed at
US$40m.412
The
question of funding would be pursued with the CPA. The record of
the
video
conference was sent to the FCO.
752.
Mr Straw
wrote to Mr Boateng on 6 October, to bid for £13.9m from
the
Reserve as
the UK’s contribution to improving the content and professionalism
of the
753.
Mr Boateng
replied to Mr Straw on 16 October, rejecting the FCO’s bid on
the
grounds
that he was not satisfied the proposal would deliver value for
money and that
the FCO had
not fully exploited existing resources.414
754.
Mr Boateng’s
decision on funding for the Iraqi Media Network was relayed to
the
Iraq Senior
Officials Group (ISOG) the same day.415
Sir Jeremy
Greenstock, visiting
409
Letter
Boateng to Amos, 25 September 2003, ‘Iraq: Reconstruction Funding:
Reserve Claim’.
410
Public
hearing, 22 January 2010, page 39.
411
Public
hearing, 22 January 2010, page 22.
412
Letter
Cannon to Adams, 16 September 2003, ‘Iraq: Prime Minister’s Video
Conference with Bush,
16
September 2003’.
413
Letter
Straw to Boateng, 6 October 2003, ‘Reconstructing the Iraqi Media
Network: Claim on the
Reserve’.
414
Letter
Boateng to Straw, 16 October 2003, ‘Iraq Reserve Claim:
Reconstructing the Media Network’.
415
Minute Dodd
to Sheinwald, 20 October 2003, ‘Iraq: Senior Officials
Group’.
130