Further memorandum submitted by the Foreign
and Commonwealth Office
Letter to the Permanent Under Secretary
of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office from the Chairman of
the Committee, 29 July 2003
Thank you for your reply to my request for further
information on matters related to the 2003 Departmental Report.
These will be very useful in compiling our final report.
The Committee was disappointed, however, that
you were unable to fulfil your promise to send us a copy of the
cost/benefit analysis used to inform the decision to sell the
current San Francisco Residence. If it is really thought necessary
for the analysis to remain confidential, I would be grateful if
you could send the Committee a full copy of the document, which
we shall use to inform our deliberations but refrain from publishing.
Chairman of the Committee
July 2003
Letter to the Chairman of the Committee
from the Permanent Under Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth
Office, 27 August 2003
Thank you for your letter of 29 July in response
to my own providing further information on the 2003 Departmental
Report. I am glad you found it useful.
On the question of providing the discounted
cash flow analysis for comparing the options in San Francisco,
the main concern is that any public reference to our figure could
reduce our ability to obtain the best price from the sale of the
current residence. In particular the analysis includes assumptions
on the current value of the Pacific Heights property. However,
in view of the Committee's wish to see the calculations, I have
decided on this occasion to provide the papers you requested on
the basis that the Committee will treat them as if they were classified
"Restricted" and will not allow them to enter the public
domain. I would be particularly disappointed if Ministers or my
colleagues were to receive further letters from members of the
public interested in the case drawing on either the figures or
the methodology provided to the Committee.
I therefore enclose a copy of the comparison
between the purchase of the new property at Presidio Heights and
retention of the present residence[10].
There is also an analysis of the rented option but in practice
the team were unable to find a rented property suitable for use
as a Residence. The figures should be treated as a tool to help
decision-makers rank options.
You might also be interested to know that as
part of their normal audit function, the NAO have examined the
process followed by the FCO in purchasing a new residence for
the Consul General in San Francisco. They were satisfied that
the decision to sell and the purchase of the replacement had been
handled properly.
Sir Michael Jay KCMG,
Permanent Under Secretary of State,
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
August 2003
10 Not printed. Back
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