10.1 |
Reconstruction: March 2003 to June 2004
privatisation
and monetising the food basket, would not be taken forward, to
avoid
handing the
incoming transitional administration an unemployment
problem.491
862.
The Annotated
Agenda for the 27 November meeting of the AHMGIR
invited
Ministers formally to reject the suggestion that the CPA should
pursue radical
863.
The AHMGIR
agreed that the UK should advocate a CPA economic policy
of
capacity
building and advice to Iraqi institutions rather than radical
economic reform.493
864.
The British
Office in Baghdad offered an assessment of the state of Iraq’s
public
administration
on 4 December.494
The
“reconstruction” of Iraqi ministries appeared to
be “progressing
only slowly”. Major problems included:
•
Ministers’
authority was unclear.
•
Patchy
de-Ba’athification had left many staff uncertain of their future
and
ministers
uncertain of their staff’s loyalty.
•
Rationalisation
of staffing and pay scales had been “slow to
non-existent”,
leaving
officials hanging around ministries with no real job.
865.
The British
Office in Baghdad commented that the new political timetable had
only
added to
the uncertainty.
866.
A second DFID
team visited Iraq in early December, to develop
longer-term
programmes
of support for public administration.495
867.
Ambassador
Bremer convened a “Commanders and Leaders” conference
on
8 December,
at which he instructed CPA staff “to come up with a minimum of
US$500m
in
‘quick-dispersing projects’ that we could have under way by
spring”.496
There
was
a political
imperative in implementing projects as quickly as possible, so that
the Iraqi
people
could see progress on the ground before the transfer of
sovereignty.
868.
Mr Etherington,
who attended the conference, recorded in his memoir
that
Ambassador
Bremer announced that the CPA would triple spending over the next
three
months to
create jobs and cement political engagement.497
869.
On 13
December, US forces captured former President Saddam
Hussein.498
491
Letter
Rycroft to Adams, 21 November 2003, ‘Iraq: Meeting with Condi Rice,
21 November’.
492 Annotated
Agenda, 27 November 2003, Ad Hoc Group on Iraq Rehabilitation
meeting.
493
Minutes, 27
November 2003, Ad Hoc Group on Iraq Rehabilitation
meeting.
494
Telegram
187 Baghdad to FCO London, 4 December 2003, ‘Iraq/Ministry
Reconstruction’.
495
Letter
Drummond to Chakrabarti, 24 November 2003, ‘Visit to
Iraq’.
496
Bremer LP
III & McConnell M. My Year in
Iraq: The Struggle to Build a Future of Hope.
Threshold,
2006.
497
Etherington
M, Revolt of
the Tigris: The Al Sadr Uprising and the Governing of
Iraq. Hurst
& Company,
2006.
498
BBC
News, 14
December 2003, Bremer’s
statement in full.
149