The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
666.
President Bush
announced on 7 September that he had asked Congress
for
a further
US$20.3bn to support Iraq’s reconstruction.396
667.
Mr Lusty
advised TPUK colleagues on 12 September that,
following
President
Bush’s announcement that the US would provide further funding for
Iraq’s
reconstruction,
establishing a TPUK office in Baghdad was:
“… not so
much timely as a critical necessity. Without a dedicated
commercial
presence on
the ground we will continue to miss out on ensuring that the UK
private
sector
plays the role it is capable of to reconstruct
Iraq.”397
668.
Mr Lusty
reported that the British Office in Baghdad had recently
secured
additional
space in the Green Zone in Baghdad, which could accommodate
a
commercial
office. The “concept” was that the commercial office would
initially be staffed
by two
members of TPUK staff and two consultants from AMEC plc in a
“public/private
partnership”.
669.
TPUK deployed
three Commercial Officers to Baghdad during
September.398
A secondee
from AMEC, to provide advice on infrastructure, followed in
November.
670.
The AMEC
secondee deployed under the Short-Term Business
Attachment
programme,
which included a conflict of interests clause in the
contract.399
671.
Those were the
first Commercial Officers to deploy to Iraq after the
invasion.
A June 2004
briefing advised that the FCO had reneged on a pre-invasion
agreement
that there
would be a Commercial Officer among the initial deployment of UK
officials
672.
TPUK deployed
a Commercial Officer to Kuwait to cover Basra and southern
Iraq
in January
2004.
673.
The Annotated
Agenda for the 18 September meeting of the AHMGIR
advised
Ministers
that the US had decided to establish a Program Management Office
(PMO)
to oversee
CPA reconstruction funds.401
The
decision was a response to the persistent
problems in
transferring funds from CPA(Baghdad) and CPA regional offices.
However:
“Our
initial response is sceptical: the PMO will manage predominantly US
funds,
which will
require US contracting and procurement procedures to be
followed.
The prospect
of developing Iraqi capacity, and of opening up contracts to
include UK
396
Bowen SW
Jr. Hard
Lessons: The Iraq Reconstruction Experience. U.S.
Government Printing Office,
2009.
397
Minute
Lusty to Henderson, 12 September 2003, ‘Baghdad: TPUK
Presence’.
398
Briefing
UKTI, 7 June 2004, ‘Permanent Secretaries’ Meeting on UK Civilian
Staffing in Iraq,
8 June
2004’.
399
Briefing
UKTI, 25 November 2003, ‘Mr O’Brien’s Meeting with
AMEC’.
400
Briefing
UKTI, 7 June 2004, ‘Permanent Secretaries’ Meeting on UK Civilian
Staffing in Iraq,
8 June
2004’.
401
Annotated
Agenda, 18 September 2003, Ad Hoc Group on Iraq Rehabilitation
meeting.
474