Attendees:

*COL James Behring Vice-Chair/CPA - Comptroller

*Frederick C. Smith Acting Senior Advisor for the Office of Security Affairs

*Chris Milligan USAID

*COL Nolen Bivens Representative of Office of Operations & Infrastructure (Designee)

*COL Michael Toner CJTF-7 Comptroller

*Andrew Goledzinowski Council of International Coordination

*Neil Mules Representative of the Australia Government

*Yusaf Samuiullah Representative of the United Kingdom Government

Gary Buckley CPA - General Counsel

Jesse Pruett Program Review Board - Regional Programs Manager

MAJ Todd Gondeck Coalition Joint Task Force - 7, Deputy Comptroller

COL Mathew Mulhern CPA - Ministry of Finance

Anthony McDonald Co-Director Office of Management & Budget

Mary Beal Program Management Office

LCDR Les Huffman Coalition Military Assistant Training Team

Frederica Sawyer Program Review Board Office

Corey Monaghan Office of National Security Affairs

Kenneth P. Maykowski Program Review Board Administrator

*Voting Members

The minutes from the PRB meetings of December 29th were approved.

A Board member asked the PRB Administrator what was the vote count for the Electronic Vote taken January 8^{th for PRB#605 - Emergency Response Pipeline Repair. He stated that there were five Yes Votes, one Abstain and one conditional. The question was asked whether a majority vote meant a majority of the voting members or the majority of the members voting. The regulation was checked and it does not define what a majority is. The PRB did check with General Counsel Office and the GC office agreed that a majority of members voting was needed only.}

Since the Iraq Minister of Finance could not make it to the meeting, Tony McDonald spoke to the Board on the Minister of Finance’s behalf. MoF noted that the 2004 budget fully allocated available funds. Therefore where the Board recommends new proposals it will be necessary to identify the sources of funds. The Iraq Minister of Finance did not want any deductions to the 2004 budget allocation without going through the proper procedures. Proposal for input in an area of a ministry responsibilities should carry the endorsement of the relevant ministry. See the Addendum to the minutes for additional concerns of the Iraq Minister of Finance.

The following Funding Requests were considered by the Board for recommendation to the Administrator:

#613 - Local Governance Fund - $19,000,000 - The request was approved to provide funds to each Governorate with a Provisional Council of $1M with Baghdad receiving $2M. Special consideration will be given to the three Northern Governorates which do not have Provincial Councils. One half ($500,000) will go to the Provincial Council and the remaining $500,000 will be allocated equally among the five largest Qada Councils in each of the governorates. Anthony McDonald requested that the Iraq Ministry of Public Works be made aware of this Program. This PRB was for information only, the funding for this item is in the FY04 Iraqi Budget (PRB 513) under the Regional Emergency Response Fund program.

#607 - CPA Samarra Project - $2,801,530 - The request was approved to provide a rapid infusion of project monies into the area. The projects will generate jobs and growth through the development of the foundation for the potentially lucrative tourism industry, based upon Samarra’s rich cultural history and extensive historical ruins. This PRB was for information only, the funding for this item is in the FY04 Iraqi Budget (PRB 513) under the Regional Emergency Response Fund program.

#614 - World Trade Organization Accession - $2,500,000 - It was mentioned to the Board that the PRC members felt that this item could and most likely would be funded by one of the Donor Countries. The Board approved closing this PRB out.

#612 - 3rd Battalion NIA Life Support at Tal Afar - † Funds were approved for a contract to provide Life Support to sustain the 3rd Battalion of the New Iraqi Army from 24 Jan - 30 Apr 2004 near Tal Afar. The unit is being moved there to provide operational support to the US 101st Division. Because this could be funded with the USG Supplemental this request was debated for some time. The Board felt that this action was needed now; therefore the Board approved this request. The PRB was unanimous in its concern for the continued use of scarce DFI funds to resources requirements because of the delays in obtaining Supplemental funding. This concern will be noted in the Allocation Request to Ambassador Bremer. Iraq Minister of Finance abstained from voting because he did not know the impact of not funding this requirement.

† Where the publication of approved funding levels may prejudice the competitive contracting processes, these amounts will be redacted.

Tony McDonald took PRB #612 request down to the Minister of Finance for his review. The Minister wanted the minutes to reflect that the “Budget is a promise to the people from the government particularly the Minister of Finance who announced it. So changes to it particularly taking away from it is breaking his promise and taking away the confidence of the people in the government of Iraq and the Minister of Finance. There is concern that we are going back to past practices by announcing a budget and then altering it by an ad hoc process.” They also felt that the † for life support was too high for Iraqi standards. Additionally, they wanted to know if DFI could be used for these types of expenses since they were not for the humanitarian needs of the Iraqi people or for economic reconstruction and repair of Iraq’s infrastructure. UNSCR indicates that DFI can be used for other purposes benefiting the people of Iraq and security and national defense are essential benefits for the Iraqi people.