ADMINISTRATION IN CONFIDENCE
everything (travel and leave costs, accommodation, official transport etc) relating to the personal needs of all Governors. And the cost to the FCO would probably be little more than we pay at present through subsidies of one kind or another (they vary from a straight topping up of salaries to paying for leave journeys under the guise of calling Governors home for consultations).
4.
A system of this kind would have considerable advantages. But a formidable administrative effort would be needed to get it off the ground. We would need to obtain the agreement of the governments of all the territories concerned and establish a satisfactory method of accounting for expenditure and effecting recoveries (in the case of the grant aided countries this would probably mean bringing in the ODM as well). We would need to convince Finance Department and perhaps the Treasury that little or no additional expenditure would be involved, and sort out the manpower implications. We would also need to find satisfactory solutions to a number of subsidiary problems, for example the effect the arrangements would have on the tax and pension positions of HMOCS officers brought into the scheme. Before embarking on a major exercise of this kind we need to be sure that the problem to be solved is of sufficient magnitude to justify the effort. Given that there are so few people involved, and that they are going to become fewer, and given that the present system, for all its untidiness, works well enough for most of our Governors most of the time, my own conclusion is that it would not be cost effective to set up a comprehensive new scheme.
5.
The alternative is to identify the main areas of difficulty
On the and to deal with each one separately on its merits. evidence so far, these areas are:
i.
ii.
iii.
leave passages;
maintenance of official residences;
duty (ie entertainment and local) allowances for HMOCS Governors.
ADMINISTRATION IN CONFIDENCE
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