6.4 |
Planning and preparation for a post-Saddam Hussein Iraq, mid-2001
to January 2003
918.
Mr Lee also
recorded that he had agreed with Dr Brewer that development
of
military
campaign objectives needed to take account of humanitarian
concerns.
919.
The Inquiry
considers that Ms Short’s exclusion reflected No.10’s
position
on her
participation in the making of policy on Iraq. Ministerial
decision-making is
addressed
in more detail in Section 2.
920.
The discussion
of DFID (and DTI) involvement in military planning by the Chiefs
of
Staff on 8
January 2003 is described later in this Section.
921.
Dr Brewer told
the Inquiry that the proportion of her time spent on Iraq
changed
significantly
over that period:
“By about
mid-December 2002 and then until early April 2003 it was taking
up
most of my
time, displacing most of my other responsibilities as DG
Regional
Programmes.
I handed over direct supervision of DFID’s Iraq operations to
Suma
Chakrabarti
a few weeks before Clare Short resigned in May
2003.”445
922.
Dr Brewer
explained:
“From
autumn 2002, Suma Chakrabarti and I kept under constant review
staffing
levels and
responsibilities on Iraq, how work on Iraq was going, and the
impact that
our
workload on Iraq was having on other DFID work in my areas of
responsibility. In
early April
2003, he and I agreed that he should take over from me direct
supervision
of DFID
work on Iraq for the following reasons:
–
co-ordination between DFID and OGDs, in particular MOD but also
No.10,
FCO and
Cabinet Office, had significantly improved (which had been one
of
my key
immediate tasks);
– the issue
was reputationally critical for DFID, and therefore one on which
the
Permanent
Secretary naturally needed to be engaged; and
– for me,
as the relevant DG, as well as the Permanent Secretary also
to
continue to
spend a considerable proportion of time on Iraq, risked
both
duplication
of senior level supervision and significant neglect of the rest of
my
923.
In December
2002, the FCO introduced new machinery to manage its
work
on
Iraq.
445
Statement,
12 September 2010, page 1.
446
Statement,
12 September 2010, page 14.
267