TNAG-2961-FCO40-4240-Future-of-Hong-Kong-British-Consulate-General-building-incl-1993 — Page 69

$

RESTRICTED

dealing with the staffing problems caused by peaks and troughs in the 10 year passport cycle; meets the brief for the

and represents good value for money.

building;

Background

3.

Mr Goodlad accepted the recommendation in our submission

of 17 February that we should ask the Management Review Staff

to undertake a review of the staffing plans for the Consulate

General.

B

C

4.

In parallel with this, the Steering Committee looked at

ways to reduce the costs of the building based on the preliminary sketch designs, since these exceeded the October

1991 PES budget figure for construction. Our proposed

remedies were detailed in Mr Bertram's submission of 31 March.

Mr Goodlad agreed that OED should seek the Treasury's approval for the project, provided that we could be satisfied that the

original investment case (for construction of a new building

on the site offered free by HKG) still stood. OED have accordingly written to the Treasury (Mr Smith's letter of 7

June) to state our case. Since then OED have provided various clarifications in response to Treasury queries. At the time of submission we still await final Treasury approval.

5.

The MRS Review highlighted a problem which we knew existed on the passport issuing side. Since all BN (0) passports will be issued in the period 1992-1997 there will be marked peaks

of renewals in 2002-2007 and subsequent ten year intervals.

An early draft of the MRS report cast doubt on the building design brief. It questioned whether or not the right balance had been struck in estimating the space required for passport issuing, given the cyclical nature of the work. The draft suggested that it might be more economic to dispense with an in-house passport facility and either to outhouse this

subconsgen28.NAT

JEB

RESTRICTED