10.1 |
Reconstruction: March 2003 to June 2004
poll
reported that 64 percent of Iraqi citizens said that their life was
about the same
or better
than a year ago; the comparable figure from the March 2004 report
was
81 percent.
The availability of schools and basic goods were regarded as the
most
positive
changes; the provision of electricity and jobs the least
positive.
1092.
Mr Quarrey
advised Mr Blair on 22 June, in advance of a video conference
with
President
Bush, that reconstruction was “still a worry”.640
The US and
UK needed to
make sure
there was no dip in activity over the summer as CPA projects wound
down
and new
projects under the PMO and IIG started up.
1093.
The 25 June
meeting of the ISG judged that preparations for transition were
“on
course”.641
The risk of
a dip in reconstruction activity through the summer
remained.
However,
the Iraqi Ministry of Finance had now agreed that CPA projects
funded by the
DFI could
be managed by the PMO through to their completion, and QIPs and
CERPs
were
available to commanders for short-term projects when a specific
business case
was put
forward.
1094.
The Occupation
of Iraq formally came to an end on 28 June, two days earlier
than
had been
originally planned, in order to avoid disruption by
insurgents.
1095.
On the same
day, as he prepared to leave Baghdad, Mr Richmond sent
a
valedictory
telegram to the FCO in London in which he assessed the failures
and
achievements
of the CPA:
“After
security, services have been the CPA’s main failing. Baghdad
presently
has fewer
than 12 hours per day of electricity – no different from a year
ago. The
Iraqis had
inflated expectations of what CPA could deliver; the Coalition
seriously
underestimated
the scale of the problem. Sabotage and increasing demand
have
compounded
the problem but disorganisation and delays in securing funds
have
1096.
Mr Richmond
also set out what had gone right, including establishing a
political
process and
reforming the economy:
“… [a] new
and stable currency has been introduced; an independent Central
Bank,
sound
monetary policy and budgetary discipline and controls are in place.
Higher
wages have
resulted in a mini consumer boom. New bank regulations and a
new
code of
foreign direct investment will, once security improves, position
the economy
for rapid
growth. The black spot is unemployment (on which estimates differ)
but
as the US
supplemental [IRRF2] and other donor money kicks in this should be
a
diminishing
problem.”
640
Minute
Quarrey to Blair, 22 June 2004, ‘VTC with President Bush, 22
June’.
641
Minute
Cabinet Office [junior official] to Sheinwald, 29 June 2004, ‘Iraq:
Strategy Group’.
642
Telegram
359 Richmond to FCO London, 28 June 2004, ‘Iraq: Valedictory: The
End of Occupation
Part 1 of
2’.
189