40% leap in foreign aid cash stolen by fraudsters
THE amount of British aid money that made its way into the hands of fraudsters increased by nearly 40 per cent last year, figures have revealed.
The revelation will raise further concerns about how British funds are handed out, with the cash lost to criminals now topping £1million.
The Government has faced intense criticism over its commitment to maintain foreign aid spending after revelations about how the money is often squandered. Earlier this month the International Development Secretary Priti Patel said that taxpayer cash was being wasted and stolen in a damning critique of the aid regime.
Despite revealing a new plan to reduce the misspending, the Government has pledged to keep sending 0.7 per cent of national income abroad.
Data from the Department for International Development (DfID) has shown that the cost of fraud in 2015 to 2016 was £1.04million. The figures, revealed through a Freedom of Information request, show that the bill for the previous year was £749,000, an increase of 38 per cent.
A decrease in the number of fraud cases detected by the department’s anti-fraud team was also revealed, falling from 91 cases to 69 in the same period. A series of reports in the Daily Mail have revealed numerous cases in which the UK’s £12billion aid budget is wasted on controversial projects. Critics have also suggested that huge sums of money are spent on administration and staff costs within charities and aid bodies, rather than on those who are meant to be benefiting.
DfID said that the increase in the amount of aid money finding its way to fraudsters last year was down to ‘heightened scrutiny’ by its staff. The department has previously been criticised by Britain’s aid watchdog for the way in which it tackles corruption in several countries.
Speaking earlier this month, Miss Patel announced plans to reform the way aid money is spent, saying it is being ‘stolen’ and ‘wasted on inappropriate projects’. Earlier this year, a report by the Commons public accounts committee warned that large sums of foreign aid often went unaccounted for.
The Prime Minister outlined her plan for aid spending in her first major foreign policy speech earlier this week, pledging £750million for immigration hotspots.
Theresa May described how she was determined to use the budget to protect Britain from terrorism and to protect its borders.
She hopes to do this by spending hundreds of millions of pounds of aid targeting refugees in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Ethiopia and Somalia who may instead make the journey to Europe.
Mrs May also restated her commitment to Britain spending 0.7 per cent of GDP on overseas aid, a move that could anger some Tory backbenchers.
Of the new money, around £660million will go into a general pot to fund humanitarian causes, mostly centred on Syria and neighbouring countries.
Some £20million will go on allowing refugees who have fled Somalia to return from neighbouring Kenya, where 300,000 of them are currently living, creating jobs and providing food and education.
A further £80million will be targeted at Ethiopia, much of which is intended to create jobs for the Eritreans living in the country.
A DfID spokesman said: ‘We have a zero tolerance approach to fraud and corruption – full stop. All allegations of fraud and abuse of DfID resources are investigated by our counter fraud unit.’