Letter to the Chairman of the Committee
from the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs,
30 March 2004
Thank you for your letter of 16 March about
resourcing the British Embassy in Kuwait. As requested in your
letter, I enclose a copy of Kuwait telegram number 30.[1]
It is classified as restricted.
Mr Wilton's telegram was a colourful and successful
effort to attract attention to a specific end-of-year funding
difficulty in the Embassy in Kuwait. Towards the end of the financial
year it is not unusual for posts to face overspends or underspends
on their budget allocation. But as FCO resources have become more
tightly stretched, Ambassadors have teen told to do everything
they can to avoid overspends. So Mr Wilton was right to draw the
problem to the attention of officials in London. As usual with
such cases, the FCO was able to make good the shortfall in the
budget of the Embassy to remove the likelihood of an overspend.
There was, of course, no chance that we would
have allowed the Embassy to close for budgetary reasons.
I recognise the Committee's concern about the
level of FCO resources. Our budgets are tightly stretched, particularly
given that the demands for FCO activity are high. To manage this,
the FCO must be as efficient in the delivery of its services as
it can be. Inevitably this means making difficult choices and
finding different ways of running an effective global foreign
policy. But that is consistent with what the Government have made
clear that they expect from all parts of the public sector.
Rt Hon Jack Straw MP
30 March 2004
1 Not printed Back
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