10.1 |
Reconstruction: March 2003 to June 2004
1043.
The AHMGIR was
also advised that the disbursement of reconstruction
funds
was
“progressing steadily”, with security and absorptive capacity the
key constraints.
Work was
“well advanced” to ensure rapid disbursement of US funds by the
PMO, and
through the
World Bank and UN Trust Funds.
1044.
Ministers were
invited to, and did, note this “positive progress”.610
1045.
The 11 May
meeting of the ISOG discussed Mr Nixon’s concern (first
expressed
in his
first impressions report from Basra at the end of February) that
there would be a
gap in
reconstruction activity in the South between the end of the CPA and
the launch of
major
infrastructure projects in August.611
The number
of UK reconstruction staff would
also fall
from 51 to seven after the transition.
1046.
A DFID
official said that DFID believed that PMO programmes would come
on
stream in
time, and that DFID had programmes that bridged the transition
period.
1047.
Mr Richmond
reported on 13 May that recent attacks on Iraq’s power
infrastructure
indicated that the “saboteurs” had a co-ordinated plan to squeeze
fuel
supplies to
Baghdad’s power plants as summer approached.612
Parts of
Baghdad had
experienced
a 48 hour blackout. MNF-I Commanders had been tasked to
refocus
patrolling
on the most important infrastructure sites. The Iraqi Facilities
Protection
Service,
which was just beginning to take shape, had also been
retasked.
1048.
The 19 May
meeting of the ISOG considered a DFID paper on
reconstruction
funding and
activity in the South after the transition.613
The paper
stated that the main
external
sources of funding for reconstruction in the South after the
transition would be
the PMO,
the World Bank and UN Trust Funds, the Japanese, and DFID. Funding
from
these
sources would:
“… take
some time to begin to show real impact in terms of improved
services
(probably
around 4-6 months), although some job creation should come
sooner.”
1049.
In the
interim, although the CPA would be dissolved on 30 June, a
significant
number of
CPA-administered/DFI-funded projects would continue beyond that
date.
DFID was
recruiting a “‘residual’ CPA team” to ensure that those projects
could continue
(although
it was not yet clear who would have legal authority to manage those
projects
after 30
June).
1050.
DFID reported
that the PMO had stated that, by the time those
CPA/DFI
projects
completed in late August/early September, many of its contractors
would have
established
themselves in Basra and new job opportunities should be starting to
emerge.
610 Annotated
Agenda, 6 May 2004, Ad Hoc Group on Iraq Rehabilitation meeting;
Minutes, 6 May 2004,
Ad Hoc
Group on Iraq Rehabilitation meeting.
611
Letter
Cabinet Office [junior official] to Buck, 13 May 2004, ‘Iraq:
Senior Officials Group’.
612
Telegram
232 IraqRep to FCO London, 13 May 2004, ‘Infrastructure Security
and Reconstruction’.
613
Paper DFID,
May 2004, ‘Reconstruction funding and activity in Southern Iraq
post transition’.
181