Chakrabarti joined the UK's Overseas Development Administration (ODA), the predecessor to the
Department for International Development, in 1984 as a senior economic assistant working on macroeconomics issues and UK aid projects. He previously worked in
Botswana on an Overseas Development Institute Fellowship. He was seconded by the UK government to the
International Monetary Fund and the
World Bank in the 1980s. On returning to the ODA in London, he became
Private Secretary to the Conservative
Lynda Chalker, then
Minister of State for Overseas Development based at the Foreign Office. Chakrabarti subsequently became Head of Aid Policy and Resources. He moved to
H.M. Treasury in 1996 before taking a
Cabinet Office post responsible for creating the new central Performance and Innovation Unit to support the Prime Minister,
Tony Blair, co-ordinating reviews of long-term issues that cross public sector institutional boundaries. Still in the Cabinet Office, he headed the Economic and Domestic Affairs Secretariat, also maintaining a foot in the then
Department of Transport, Local Government and the Regions. In 2001, returning to the Department for International Development (DfID), the successor body to the ODA, Chakrabarti became DfID Director-General for Regional Development Programmes, managing 1,200 staff in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, the Caribbean and Latin America. On 8 December 2009, he
gave evidence to
The Iraq Inquiry, discussing preparations for the
2003 invasion of Iraq. From 2007 to 2012, he served as a
Permanent Secretary (senior civil servant) to the UK's
Ministry of Justice. During that period, he also held office as
Clerk of the Crown in Chancery, and, as such, was responsible for the running of the Crown Office, under the directions of the
Lord Chancellor. He was appointed on 15 November 2007. == President of the EBRD ==