Letter straw to chief secretary of the treasury iraq security for british civilian staff

Irag: Security for British Civilian Staff 1. I was grateful for your letter of 8 December 2003 agreeing to allocate up to £2 million from the £60 million designated by the Chancellor for reconstruction and development in Iraq to provide essential new, secure accommodation for UK civilian staff in Baghdad. This followed the designation of £17.8 million from this fund for other in-country security costs (your letter of 9 September and follow up letters between officials), primarily to provide armed protection teams (APTs) and suitable vehicles. I welcome this recognition from the Treasury that the security of UK staff overseas is of paramount importance, and that in Iraq, the magnitude of the cost of protecting the cross-government UK team in the CPA cannot reasonably be expected to fall to the FCO's budget. 2. The situation in Iraq has been changing fast, and UK staff in the CPA have adapted quickly as it has changed. This has inevitably meant that security requirements have changed too. My officials have kept yours informed as the situation progressed and estimates of cost changed. But as we approach the deadline for the Spring Supplementary estimate, we are now in a position to give you a detailed and definitive requirement for further security costs in Iraq in the current financial year. These amount to a total of £9.4 million beyond that already approved. My officials understand from yours that over £20 million of the £60m fund, which is multi-year, remains unspent. DECLASSIFIED Japanese, Korean, Spanish and French staff over the last few weeks. in a least two incidents in Basra (one in volving a bomb, the other a shooting) the lives of British civilian staff havebeen saved by armoured vehicles. 4. These assets have enabled us, for example, to contribute staff to seven Governorate teams, five ofwhich we lead; to make a crucial contribution to police capacity-building and mentoring of senior police officers in Baghdad and Basra; to lead the reconstruction of border enforcement (customs, immigration etc); to lead a Sunni outreach programme; and to provide a wide range of technical assistance to Iraqi officials extending in to the regions. An FCO officer, Liane Saunders, has been covering the seven northern provinces as Deputy Regional Coordinator for CPA North, including travel to areas as difficult as Baqubah and Tikrit (so impressively that Bremer has just asked her to become Regional Coordinator). This will be a vital area of activity as we try to ensure that the Kurdish/federalism issue does not obstruct progress towards the transition in June. Similarly, we will need to boost our political staff in the southern Govemorates, to facilitate the political process and retain Shia consent, over the next four or five months. None of this would be possible without the armoured vehicles and APTs, which are required by our duty of care. As an illustration of the extent to which the vehicles and accompanying 5. APTs are used, the vehicles in Basra covered an average of 7,500 km each during November and carried a total of 589 passengers. Our security manager in Baghdad coordinates 15 to 22 operational movements a day in addition to DECLASSIFIED 6. A further important benefit of the APTs is their very effective communications network. This has enabled us to develop an integrated communications network on the back of their systems and technical expertise, which has proved invaluable for the efficient dissemination of security information and incident response. 7. There are a number of reasons why the requirement, and hence the estimates, have changed, specifically: - significant increases in the number of UK secondees to the CPA and the range of their activity. There are 112 civilian staff in Iraq under FCO auspices. This figure will increase with, for example, more police trainers, more FCO Arabic speakers to facilitate the political process, and the return of Treasury and Bank of England staff. In July 2003, when I first submitted a claim on the reserve, we estimated that we would need 12 armoured vehicles. By December that requirement had risen in stages to 82. Similarly, the July estimate was for four armed protection teams. By Early January that requirement had risen in stages to 30. For example, in July there were 17 military and four civilian UK secondees to CPA South. Now there are 72 UK civilian secondees in CPA South. Similarly, the extent of our work in the Governorates was not foreseen last summer. DECLASSIFIED armoured and one soft-skinned vehicle (the latter for the APT). They subsequently recommended travel in convoys of at least two armoured vehicles in the Baghdad area. This requirement was then extended countrywide. Our security managers in Baghdad and Basra are also stipulating convoys of more than two vehicles in some cases, where there is perceived to be a heightened risk and/or in order to vary the obvious signature of two-vehicle convoys. Even under the very difficult constraints in Iraq, we are ensuring as far as possible that our security needs are met in a way consistent with the best value for money for the taxpayer. We have squeezed considerably more from the £17.8 million already granted than in our original estimates of unit costs for vehicles and APTs (the bulk of the costs). For example, by using a variety of sources across Europe we have reduced the average cost of an armoured vehicle from the previous estimate of £101,000 to around £85,000. The contract we negotiated with Control Risks Group ensures that APTs are paid only when they are actually working. For example, when vehicle deliveries have been delayed, so has the corresponding team's start-date (this also explains the higher concentration of APT costs later in the year when more vehicles had arrived). ... 9. I enclose a table which shows the pattern of deployment of vehicles and APTs, how we have used £14.3 million of the £17.8 million up until January, and how we shall need a further £12.9 million from for the rest of the financial DECLASSIFIED Department's deadline is 5 February. I therefore hope that you can agree this funding as soon as possible. 11. I can also give you notice that we estimate continuing security costs in 2004-05 up until 30 June 2004, the target date for handover to a provisional Iraqi government, will be £12.5 million. And in due course, we will also need to discuss the security and other costs of British representation in Iraq after June 2004, on which we shall be working up costed proposals over the next few weeks. Your and my officials, as well as those from DFID, have * already had preliminary discussions on appropriate and equitable funding arrangements for these requirements. 12. I am copying this minute to the Prime Minister and Hilary Benn. JACK STRAW Foreign and Commonwealth Office 26 January 2004 DECLASSIFIED IRAQ DIRECTORATE: CPA SECONDEES SECURITY/COMMUNICATIONS: ESTIMATE OF EXPENDITURE 2003-04 CAPITAL EXPENDITURE GRAND CAPITAL ADMINISTRATION EXPENDITURE ADMIN TOTAL TOTAL APH FEB MAR DEC JAN MAY-NOV TOTAL APR MAR FEB 8,070,000 475,000 JAN DEC 1,710,000 DESCRIPTION 2,090,000 MAY-NOV 1,540,000 2,255,000 Vehicles (96) 75,000 330,000 255,000 Vehicle Freight 510,000 66,575 130,000 89,600 157,975 Vehicle Other 8,070,000 475,000 1,710,000 2,090,000 1,540,000 2,255,000 460,000 141,575 344,600 SUB TOTAL 667,975 31,000 346,000 149,000 Communications 31,000 149,000 SUB TOTAL 346,000 Baghdad APT (8 690,440 690,440 690,440 2.436,242 teams: 25/7-31/3) Baghdad APT (4 390,353 390,353 390,353 487,941 teams: 24/9-31/3) Basra APT (5 1.322,000 teams: 25/7-31/3) Govemorates APT (6 teams: 12/10- 491,052 1,325,844 31/3) Governorates APT 164,000 (2 teams: 1/1-31/3 Govemorates APT 410,000 (5 teams: 1/2-31/3) 3,467,845 3,057,845 2,406,637 2,924,183 SUB TOTAL 1,080,793 8,070,000 475,000 1.710,000 2,090,000 2,255,000 1,540,000 p1 10110011 3,634,145 3,609,420 2,897,637 GRAND TOTAL 3,938,158 1,574,393 09-Jan-04 DECLASSIFIED DECLASSIFIED