Hundreds of millions of pounds in foreign aid may be being wasted because no one is monitoring how effectively it’s spent, MPs admit
- MPs on public administration committee claim money is not being accounted for
- Concerns that a No Deal Brexit could lead to more waste because of foreign aid distributed by the EU
- Report says that ‘gaps in departments’ information mean performance cannot be assessed
Hundreds of millions of pounds in foreign aid may be being wasted because nobody is keeping track of how effectively the money is being spent, a damning report claims.
MPs on the Commons public administration committee said not enough was being done to ensure the £14billion-a-year aid budget was going to ‘value for money’ projects.
They warned that a No Deal Brexit could result in even more waste because ministers would have to rush to decide where to redirect £1.4billion of aid currently distributed via the EU.
Hundreds of millions of pounds in foreign aid may be being wasted because nobody is keeping track of how effectively the money is being spent, a damning report claims
And they expressed concerns over moves to give more ministries, not just the Department for International Development, the power to spend parts of the foreign aid budget – officially known as Overseas Development Assistance or ODA.
The report noted that ‘gaps in departments’ information mean they cannot always assess the performance of their ODA-funded programmes’.
It singled out the £735million Newton Fund, launched in 2014 to finance academics to tackle poverty.
MPs on the Commons public administration committee said not enough was being done to ensure the £14billion-a-year aid budget was going to ‘value for money’ projects. Pictured: A JCB is loaded onto an aircraft for an operation in the Philippines
It said ‘funding was doubled despite a weak understanding of how funds had been spent.’
- Boris Johnson attacked Jeremy Corbyn over his support for Venezuela’s socialist dictatorship – as he announced £30million in aid for the country, which is gripped by shortages and hyper-inflation under leader Nicolas Maduro.
- Mr Johnson said: ‘Labour would actually be supporting the Maduro regime rather than trying to alleviate the consequences of that regime’s actions.’