Labour's missing £1bn in foreign aid

[-:Undertaker:-]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ng-report.html

Where did Labour's £1bn foreign aid go? There are no proper records, says scathing report

Least we forget: Labour's staggering amount of debt not caused by global crisis, but sheer incompetence

Labour spent £1billion of taxpayers’ money on foreign aid to African and Asian schools without even monitoring whether it provided value, a damning report has found. The Department for International Development failed to measure if the huge cash investment has made any difference to school attendance rates in the poorest nations. DFID had even decided that the risk of money going astray was ‘manageable’ despite widespread fraud being detected in one educational programme in Kenya. MPs on the influential Public Accounts Committee have now given the department a year to reform.

The committee chairman, Labour MP Margaret Hodge, said: ‘My committee strongly supports the case for UK Government aid to primary education in developing countries and welcomes the significant progress being made in enrolment, particularly for girls. ‘What surprised us was the Department’s lack of a coherent framework for assessing the impact and value for money of its spending and its willingness instead to rest claims of overall performance on selective examples and anecdotes.’ She added: ‘This becomes all the more serious as the Department’s total aid budget increases in real terms by roughly a third between now and 2014-15.’ Mrs Hodge warned that DFID’s lavish spending could also be displacing other private sector providers and discouraging other funders. She added: ‘It should also take a tougher, clearer stance on the performance of the education systems it funds and pupil attainment.’

Matthew Sinclair, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘With the Government planning massive rises in international development spending, while ordinary families here are facing tax hikes, it is extremely worrying that in so many instances taxpayers don’t seem to be getting value for money. ‘We need to see more of this kind of scrutiny and the Government needs to restrain aid spending so that British families get a better deal.’

Oh deary me, more incompetence on a staggering scale brought to you by a completely hopeless bunch who couldn't change a nappy let alone run a country. Of course, i'm against foreign aid anyway as I feel that its very likely the majority of it cannot be accounted for (I read only the other week that apparently only 10% of the Haiti aid go to the people, the other 90% is unaccouted for) and to add to that; its not governments job to give away our money. But you must remember that the Tories/Liberal Democrats are also no good on this issue either, as they hiked the foreign aid budget up by a staggering 37% only a few months ago.

With this party [Labour] on 41% in the polls (discounting those who do not vote who are the biggest voting group) and with so much support for it on this forum, are some of us simply living on different planets? or is it just pure tribal ignorance? oh, and least not forget the £7.9 trillion debt left behind by Labour - so why do people still vote/support them I ask? I beg somebody for some sane reasons.

Thoughts, and some answers please because I am just mind boggled by it.

[Inseriousity.]

It's the same with some charities too. A significant amount going to the executives rather than the people it's supposed to go to. I've always been sceptical of charity anyway. "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for life" so I'm more a fan of the sustainable development charity work (building schools etc) although I'm sure if I was starving and hadn't eaten in days, I'd be much happier to see the person giving out food than the person building a school!

edit: Oh I'm against foreign aid too. Spend what you have, not what you don't.

[Jordy]

Mhm not surprising I suppose, the only reason we give Foreign Aid is to meet UN & EU targets on foreign aid, the figures therefore make this country "look good" on a world stage. The government doesn't actually care about benefiting people with the money or using it usefully, just as long as it's given away and looks good on paper. From what I understand we're also the only country to actually meet the targets.

[Catzsy]

What you fail to address, in another labour bashing thread is that it is Civil servants who have failed to monitor this expenditure who probably are not all labour supporters. In fact a labour MP headed this committee and report.

The committee chairman, Labour MP Margaret Hodge, said: ‘My committee strongly supports the case for UK Government aid to primary education in developing countries and welcomes the significant progress being made in enrolment, particularly for girls.

‘What surprised us was the Department’s lack of a coherent framework for assessing the impact and value for money of its spending and its willingness instead to rest claims of overall performance on selective examples and anecdotes.’

She added: ‘This becomes all the more serious as the Department’s total aid budget increases in real terms by roughly a third between now and 2014-15.’ Mrs Hodge warned that DFID’s lavish spending could also be displacing other private sector providers and discouraging other funders.

She added: ‘It should also take a tougher, clearer stance

Try to be a bit more objective when filing these threads, maybe?

Foreign aid is essential - it is humanitarian and most countries are of the same view. Admittedly it has to be accepted that all government departments should be audited regularly to make sure they have adequate financial controls to measure expenditure accurately and this is obviously what the Government, then, Labour, failed to do but as there were none in place it has also to be accepted that previous government's were also guilty of this which is the same as for the expensed scandal. These problems didnt just arise under a labour government. What would UKIP do about foreign aid?

[Suspective]

Whilst our country, is suffering cuts in major government departments. The 'international fund' is not even being slashed. Quite frankly, the fund should receive at least a 10% reduction. There is people in this country, living in poverty. I remember when I was watching Children in Need there was families with no belongings who had to sleep on the floor. Believe it or not, there is less fortunate people living in this country e.g. homeless people... all sorts.

Charity starts at home, its a tough time and the government need to re-assess and get there priorities and loyalties straight.

[Ajthedragon]

Well, it's Labour, what could you expect.

They spend, and don't even keep record of it.

[Catzsy]

Whilst our country, is suffering cuts in major government departments. The 'international fund' is not even being slashed. Quite frankly, the fund should receive at least a 10% reduction. There is people in this country, living in poverty. I remember when I was watching Children in Need there was families with no belongings who had to sleep on the floor. Believe it or not, there is less fortunate people living in this country e.g. homeless people... all sorts.

Charity starts at home, its a tough time and the government need to re-assess and get there priorities and loyalties straight.

You know perhaps we should all be thankful we don't live in Ethiopia. Even the poorest here are rich compared with a lot of third world countries.

Well, it's Labour, what could you expect.

They spend, and don't even keep record of it.

Have you even read the thread? It was the civil servants who didn't keep adequate accounts. Also what evidence do you have for such a sweeping statement which is totally subjective.

[Ajthedragon]

Have you even read the thread? It was the civil servants who didn't keep adequate accounts. Also what evidence do you have for such a sweeping statement which is totally subjective.

Hired by Labour. And the whole banking collapse would be a good example, they weren't going to exactly keep lending money they didn't own forever. Labour didn't really get that message. Labour have brought this country to rack and ruin in terms of it's finance. Worst yet, they sold our gold, our currency.

[Catzsy]

Hired by Labour. And the whole banking collapse would be a good example, they weren't going to exactly keep lending money they didn't own forever. Labour didn't really get that message. Labour have brought this country to rack and ruin in terms of it's finance. Worst yet, they sold our gold, our currency.

No, not necessarily. All civil servants are hired by senior civil servants and have to work with whatever government is in power. They don't change because the governments change. I might not agree with Dan most of the time but at least he is knowledgeabloe puts forward a solid argument instead of posting well worn sound bites.

[ifuseekamy]

Why are they still throwing money at these people? All it does is goes to the warmongering rulers who still believe in rain gods and witch doctors and hate white people anyway. A simpler and probably cheaper solution would be to reclaim the land as British territory and rebuild internally.