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Circular Home 'B' 122/70
Lft aric.
En ビ
18 December 1970
13/=
2동
xii
REORGANIZATION OF CENTRAL GOVERNMENT: TRANSFER OF FUNCTIONS OF THE MINISTER OF OVERSEAS DEVELOPMENT TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS
The Order in Council transferring the functions of the Minister of Overseas Development to the Secretary of State for Foreign and Common- wealth Affairs, and providing for the dissolution of the Ministry of Over- seas Development, was made on 11 November and came into operation on 12 November. From that date, the Ministry of Overseas Development ceased to exist and it has now become a functional wing of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to be known as the Overseas Development Administration of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
The O.D.A. wing will continue to be staffed by Home Civil Servants. The designation of its Permanent Secretary has been changed to Secretary (Overseas Development Administration).
2.
3. The Secretary (O.D.A.) will be responsible for complementing, postings, promotions and questions of personnel management generally in the O.D.A. subject to the normal arrangements as between a Home Depart- ment and the Civil Service Department. There will continue to be separate Votes for the O.D.A. staff and for the Aid programme which will be the responsibility of the Minister for Overseas Development (the new title of the former Minister of Overseas Development) within the limits of the authority delegated to him by the Secretary of State, and for which the Secretary (O.D.A.) will be the Accounting Officer. Attention is also drawn to the extract from Hansard of 5 November, 1970, attached at Annex A.
So far as they have to be described as separate entities the Whitehall wing of the F.C.O. should be known as the F.C.O. and the F.C.O.
(O.D.A.) wing should be known as the O.D.A.
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A Joint Working Party representing both the F.C.O. and the O.D.A. has been considering a number of matters, including procedural ones, arising from the change in the status of the O.D.M. Annex B to this circular contains the relevant extracts from the Working Party's Progress Report on such matters as the handling of Parliamentary Questions, briefing for the Secretary of State on aid matters, representation at inter-depart- mental meetings and the handling of telegrams and correspondence.
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