10.2 |
Reconstruction: July 2004 to July 2009
784.
Mr Gordon
Brown took office as Prime Minister on 27 June 2007. He
appointed
Mr Douglas
Alexander as Development Secretary, replacing Mr Benn, and
Mr David
Miliband as
Foreign Secretary, replacing Mrs Beckett. Mr Des Browne
remained
Defence
Secretary.
785.
The most
pressing issues facing the UK in Iraq remained the timing
of
the
withdrawal of UK forces from Basra Palace, and Basra’s transition
to PIC
(see Section 9.6).
786.
The
introductory briefing produced by DFID officials for
Mr Alexander described
Iraq as a
wealthy country (with oil revenues of US$37bn in the current year)
which was
unable to
spend or manage its resources effectively to deliver public
services because
of poor
security, poor political leadership and a lack of technical
ability.457
787.
DFID’s
priority was to build the capacity of the Iraqi Government to
deliver public
services,
by providing high-level policy and technical advice in Baghdad on
economic
reform.
DFID was also looking at options to provide further support for
reconciliation,
and
providing humanitarian assistance to the four million people
displaced in Iraq and
neighbouring
countries.
788.
In Basra,
DFID’s power and water infrastructure programmes would end in
late
2007,
having delivered improved access to water for over one million
people and added
or secured
enough power to provide 700,000 people with 24-hour
electricity.
789.
DFID was also
seeking to promote economic growth and private sector
investment
in Basra by
supporting:
•
the
creation of a Basra Development Commission (BDC);
•
the
creation of a Basra Investment Promotion Agency
(BIPA);
•
the
creation of a Basra Development Fund; and
•
those
institutions’ priorities, including a Basra Economic Development
Strategy,
investor
visits and youth employment initiatives.
790.
Mr Alexander’s
briefing for a trilateral meeting with Mr Miliband and
Mr Browne
in early
July highlighted the constraints on reconstruction, including the
politicisation
of ministries
and deteriorating security:
“The
Ministry of Finance does not function effectively and is subject,
like many
Ministries,
to partisan control. Combined with an almost total lack of
transparency,
the
Ministry is able to withhold funding to certain
ministries.
457
Paper DFID,
[undated], ‘Iraq: Briefing for New Ministers, June
2007’.
323