TNAG-2960-FCO40-4239-Future-of-Hong-Kong-British-Consulate-General-building-incl-1993 — Page 75

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HONG KONG: NEW CONSULATE-GENERAL

CRD

MRS

Joint Directorate

1. I believe there are a number of important issues in Mr Bertram's minute of 31 March that must be clarified before we can put a case to the Treasury for commitment to expenditure.

2-

These are:

a) the original investment case justifying a new build on a gifted site needs to be brought up to date against current Treasury criteria; there is no reason to expect that the case will not stand up but we need to identify and deal with any weaknesses before putting it forward;

It

b) the MRS and British Council staffing reviews must be complete before expenditure is committed on the full building; if they are not we risk nugatory expenditure that could be hard for the PUS to defend to the NAO and PAC. may be possible to finesse this by beginning site work as a self contained contract and as a necessary preliminary to whichever building option is finally selected. This point will need to be argued through in the Treasury case;

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