TNAG-0592-FCO40-725-Inspection-of-Hong-Kong-and-Indian-Ocean-Department-1976 — Page 70

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This represents an increase of one DS 5, one HEO and two S2/3 posts and a decrease of one DS 10 post since Mr Lamb's inspection. This is largely accounted for by the addition of responsibility for Gibraltar to the department in May 1972. In fact we found in the department only three DS 5s 'but two DS 7Es and six DS 9s (excluding the supernumerary

Miss Leiper but including as one post the DS 9 Head of Registry who was previously shared with South East Asian department). There were four instead of five S2/3s.

4. Gibraltar and General department is a Joint department. This enables it to function simultaneously as an FCO and an ODM department working to an AUS who is physically situated in the FCO but has both FCO and ODM responsibilities and may submit on either channel.

Organisation

5. The department is an amalgam of an important political section with the administrative and policy forming core of the Dependent Territories Division. In practice the three parts of the department function as more or less independent entities and much of their work has been within the competence of the Section Heads so that relatively little has been referred upwards. The Head of department estimates that 50% of his time is spent on Gibraltar, probably because this section provides a greater proportion of positive problems requiring decision at a higher level, often in consultation with the European political departments. We had no absolute means of judging his workload but the month's float of his PA's output which we saw indicated that even after the transfer of his Assistant earlier this year (because he was under- employed) he is still only lightly loaded.

6. The underemployment in the upper levels is symptomatic of what in our view is a misconception of the department's proper role in what has become a vital phase in the final stages of decolonisation. The department has admittedly coordinated the drafting of the Secretary of State's despatch to officers administering Governments on the future of the Dependent Territories and they have been coordinating an exercise on internal security. But their role has been passive rather than active. They have collected the views of others rather than putting forward a view themselves. The department themselves say that they have never had a brief to pursue a more active policy and that on those occasions when the previous Head of department attempted to look beyond the boundaries of his Gibraltar responsibilities to concern himself with Dependent Territories Division he found that with no mandate to do so he was often rebuffed by

2.

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/colleagues