Letter bowen to owen iraq cpa south staff

King Charles Street London SW1A 2AH November 2003 Dea Kara. IRAQ: CPA (SOUTH) STAFF At the meeting of the Ad Hoc Group on Iraq on 6 November, Ministers requested a note updating them on the recruitment of replacement and additional staff for CPA (South). As of 11 November, CPA (South) had 104 staff working directly for Hilary Synnott in Basra. These included eight different nationalities, of whom the largest contingents after the British were the Italians and Danes. There were 30 British civilians and 18 UK military (half regular and half TA). In October, DFID contracted the Crown Agents to recruit 37 staff - 7 to replace existing posts currently filled by the TA, and 30 for new posts. The posts were for technical advisers in areas such as essential services, social affairs, agriculture, industry and finance. All the current military officers will depart between now and the end of December. Of the departing military officers not replaced by the Crown Agents recruitment, some are being replaced by other military officers, some by non-UK staff, and some do not need to be replaced. It has not proved easy to recruit staff to serve in Iraq, despite financial inducements. Successful candidates need to have the right technical skills, aptitude for building Iraqi capacity and willingness to work in a difficult environment, When recruited, candidates also need to undergo security training. The Crown Agents should fill 15 of the 37 posts this month, including 7 TA personnel who are being re-engaged on civilian contracts. These 7 posts will be vacant for 2-3 weeks while the TA officers are DECLASSIFIED as these, will set priorities and will then recruit accordingly as soon possible, ensuring no overlap with existing recruitment. It should be possible to fill many of the jobs from Whitehall (eg Home Office), although outside specialists may be necessary for some. There is already a database of volunteers. But the security situation in Iraq will be a deterrent. Extracting people from current jobs, security training and the logistics of deployment often take longer than we would want. But FCO aim to fill the posts during December and January. CPA (South) has now grown substantially, and UK civilian staffing in Iraq as a whole is moving towards the 200 mark. The number of civilians in CPA(S) is larger than in other regions. But account must be taken of the fact that the large numbers of US Army Civil Affairs officers who are available elsewhere are not available in the South. When the evolution of the political timetable is clearer, and anyway during the first quarter of next year, we will need to review with Hilary Synnott the future role and scope of CPA South. (Funding will as always be one key factor: the arrangements for funding secondees in FY2004/5 have yet to be agreed.) The resulting recommendations will be brought to the Ad Hoc Ministerial Group for discussion and approval. Separately, we are looking at the staffing of the Governorate teams in order to ensure that staffing requirements and placements match and are clearly understood between departments. I am copying this to Martyn Williams (MOD), Moazzam Malik, (DFID), Matthew Hilton (DTI), David Brummell (LOD), Nigel Sheinwald, George Fergusson and Nick Cannon; and Hilary Synnott, CPA (South). he a pound DESMOND BOWEN DECLASSIFIED