FOREIGN AID: NEW SPENDING SCANDAL REVEALED
THE full scale of Britain’s foreign aid madness is laid bare today with almost every government department committed to spending money overseas.
The fi gures show how billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money is spent every year – just so an arbitrary target can be met.
The decision to give departments responsibility for expenditure has produced “gaps in accountability”, according to a report.
The Government has signed up to a pledge to spend 0.7 per cent of our national income on overseas aid. Last year’s total was £ 13.3billion. Three- quarters comes via the Department for International Development ( DIFD), with the remaining £ 3.5billion shared across Whitehall.
The spending scandal comes as support for our Stop The Foreign Aid Madness crusade gathers pace, with pressure mounting on the Government to address the issue.
Hard- working Britons want the target scrapped with money urgently redirected to essential services here, like the NHS, adult social care and frontline policing.
LBC broadcaster Nick Ferrari spoke for millions yesterday when he said: “I salute the Daily Express campaign. At a time that we are looking at putting hospital patients in B& Bs and having whip- rounds to pay for books in schools, I fi nd it wholly unacceptable this amount of cash can be lavished on projects that have little merit or reward for the taxpayers who funded them.”
Offi cial data shows 26 per cent of the total spent on foreign aid is not controlled by DFID, with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, now headed by MP Greg Clark, splurging £ 687million last year.
The Home Offi ce sent £ 362million abroad, the Treasury committed £ 71million on overseas aid, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs spent £ 67million and even HMRC managed to commit £ 9million – £ 4million more than the Ministry of Defence.
Foreign aid is meant to be spent on “strengthening global peace, security and governance” and “tackling extreme poverty and helping the world’s most vulnerable”.
But there have been concerns over some of the donations.
The Department of Health, which spent £ 45million on foreign aid in 2016, gives £ 15million to fund antismoking classes in corrupt countries including Cambodia, Colombia, Egypt and Myanmar.
The Foreign Offi ce reportedly plans to give £ 3million to China to help it develop football, despite the country having clubs able to pay wages of £ 615,000 a week.
In a report published in July, auditor General Sir Amyas Morse said: “The Government has decided that departments and funds other than DFID should have responsibility for expenditure. The landscape for meeting the target has become more complex as a consequence and a number of gaps in accountability and responsibility have appeared.”
International Development Secretary Priti Patel has vowed to crack down on waste, calling it “deplorable”, but said that her government believes “it is right to spend 0.7 per cent of our gross national income on aid”. She added: “It is our moral duty to help less fortunate people.”
Tens of thousands of Express readers have joined our crusade, with 25,000 postal coupons fl ooding into our headquarters so far and another 13,000 signing our online petition.
The strength of feeling will intensify pressure on Prime Minister Theresa May to scrap the target introduced by David Cameron.
A Downing Street spokesman said: “We have measures in place to ensure our investment in overseas development goes where it is needed most and can deliver the very best results for taxpayers’ money.
“All partners are subject to rigorous scrutiny and we are putting performance agreements in place to hold aid organisations to account. We are also pushing to ensure international aid rules are fully modernised and fi t for purpose. But disasters, confl icts and disease don’t pay attention to national borders.”
Sign the online petition at express. co. uk/ stop- the- foreign- aid- madness
Nick Ferrari will discuss the Daily Express crusade on LBC ( DAB digital radio, 97.3FM) today from 7am.