10.1 |
Reconstruction: March 2003 to June 2004
876.
The Annotated
Agenda for the 18 December meeting of the AHMGIR stated
that
the CPA was
taking forward ideas for a National Reconciliation
Strategy.504
Following
the
capture of
Saddam Hussein, this was:
“… a
determined effort by the CPA and the Iraqi Interim Administration
to engage
Sunni
leaders, alongside establishment of targeted job creation schemes
and more
flexible
implementation of the de-Ba’athification policy.”
877.
Also on 18
December, Mr James T Baker III, former US Secretary of State,
and
President
Bush’s personal envoy on Iraqi debt, called on Mr Blair as
part of a series
of meetings
with major creditors.505
Mr Baker
told Mr Blair that the US objective was to
get up to
80 percent debt reduction for Iraq, though that might be “overly
optimistic”. He
agreed with
Mr Blair’s proposal that debt reduction should be handled
through the Paris
Club
(rather than bilaterally).
878.
Section 10.3
describes the UK’s efforts to secure generous debt relief for
Iraq
through the
Paris Club, based on its analysis that debt relief
would:
•
increase
Iraq’s ability to fund its own reconstruction (and hence reduce
the
pressure on
the UK to contribute to reconstruction);
•
provide a
means of sharing the burden of financing Iraq’s recovery (as most
of
Iraq’s debt
was owed to non-combatant countries including Russia and
France);
and
•
clear the
way for multilateral lending to Iraq.
879.
DFID approved
the £3m Emergency Public Administration Project (EPAP) in
late
December.506
The project
aimed to improve policy-making, public administration
and
public
financial management by providing technical support to key
institutions at the
centre of
the Iraqi Government, including the Prime Minster’s Office and the
Council of
Ministers
Secretariat (comparable to the UK Cabinet Office).507
Technical
support was
provided by
consultants from Adam Smith International Ltd.
880.
The EPAP was
the first of three DFID projects during the period covered by
the
Inquiry
which aimed to improve Iraqi public administration.
881.
Sir Jeremy
Greenstock issued two reports at the turn of the year, a review of
2003
and a look
ahead at the challenges for the final six months of
Occupation.
504 Annotated
Agenda, 18 December 2003, Ad Hoc Group on Iraq Rehabilitation
meeting.
505
Minute
Cannon to Bowman, 18 December 2003, ‘Iraqi Debt: Call on the Prime
Minister by James
Baker’.
506
Paper DFID,
4 November 2009, ‘Iraq – DFID Timeline and Financial Commitments:
2003-2009’.
507
Project
Completion Report DFID, September 2005, ‘Emergency Public
Administration Project (EPAP)’.
151