Whitehall hires even more staff to spend foreign aid

HUNDREDS of new civil servants have been taken on at the Department for International Development – apparently to improve value for money.

The extra 348 UK -based penpushers cost the taxpayer £20million, meaning they are paid more than £57,000 each on average.

Dfid’s annual report said the staff will ensure the ministry has the skills it needs to ‘manage effectively’ the target to spend 0.7 per cent of the country’s national income on foreign aid.

The 15 per cent increase in the UK -based workforce will ensure ‘the best value for money possible’ in delivering overseas aid, it added.

It means the amount spent on staff has risen from £168million to £188million.

Dfid also revealed that the UK is helping 39 countries around the world learn how to manage their public finances more effectively.

The revelation will intensify backbench MPs’ anger at the aid target that results in £14billion of taxpayers’ money being spent on other countries while public services at home face austerity.

Dfid’s annual report for 2017/18, which was published quietly earlier this week , said the total number of the department ’s staff had risen from 2,977 in April 2017 to 3,357 in March 2018. Among UK-based civil servants, the increase was from 2,181 to 2,529. The number working in countries receiving aid remained stable.

The annual report said: ‘Dfid’s overall workforce increased to ensure we have the skills and capability to manage effectively our commitment to spend 0.7 per cent of GNI [gross national income] on international development and to ensure UK ODA [overseas development assistance] repre - sents the best value for money possible.’

Staff at Dfid earn, on average, more than those in any other government department and the report reveals that, perhaps unsurprisingly , they are among the most content in Whitehall.

It said: ‘Dfid’s employee engagement response to the 2017 Civil Service People Survey was 71 per cent. This is nine points above the civil service average… Dfid staff are among the most moti vated and engaged across the civil service.’

James Price, of the T axPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘Dfid has done a better job in recent years of cutting down on embarrassingly wasteful projects, but much more needs to be done to prevent tax - payers’ money from being wasted.’

‘Prevent taxpayers’ money being wasted’