Theresa May demands aid budget goes towards ‘world’s poorest’ after consultants, bankers and celebs pocket fortune
The Department for International Development admitted that consultancy spending had doubled to almost £1 billion a year since 2012
THERESA MAY yesterday demanded Britain’s aid budget goes on the “world’s poorest” after revelations that consultants, bankers and celebrity speakers have pocketed a fortune.
The Department for International Development (Dfid) admitted that consultancy spending had doubled to almost £1 billion a year since 2012 – with ten British companies receiving almost half the money.
One British think tank asked for £10,306 to write a blog. Banking giant JP Morgan shared £1 million of taxpayers’ cash with a law firm to advise a Nigerian sovereign wealth fund.
The PM’s official spokeswoman insisted the Government was “very clear” that taxpayers money should be spent in the “most cost effective and efficient way”.
And she vowed: “There have already been steps taken to make sure that British aid ends up where it should, helping people, the world’s poorest around the world to deal with a range of issues that not only affect them but affect us here in the UK.
“And we will continue to work with the sector to make sure that there are the highest standards possible.”
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The fresh revelations in the Sun’s sister paper the Times pile yet more pressure on the Government to justify the huge amounts of taxpayers cash going overseas.
Britain by law has to spend 0.7 per cent of its economic output - £12 billion – on overseas projects.
But insiders say the pressure to spend the money has seen civil servants sanction splurge cash on private sector agencies and consultancies.
Analysising 70,000 Dfid transactions, the Times found that since 2012, £3.4 billion-worth of aid has been spent on consultancy fees.
Two-thirds of this has gone to UK organisations, and 43 per cent to the UK’s top 10 consultancy firms, such as Crown Agents, the international development company.
Dfid documents also revealed the World Bank paid consultants in Libya an average day rate of £1,160.
One consultancy ASI charged £213,000 to provide a consultant for nine months.
The fresh allegations are said to have incensed new Development Secretary Priti Patel, who took over in July after previously questioning whether the Department should exist.
Speaking in October Ms Patel said taxpayers money was being wasted on “superficial” foreign aid projects by some of the world’s biggest international bodies.
She vowed to “call out” foreign aid organisations using British money in “completely the wrong way”.
A Government source yesterday said Priti Patel believed Britain “owe it to the world’s poorest” to be more transparent about where UK aid is going and that every Pound of development support is spent “transforming lives in the poorest places – and not lining the pockets of people in the development industry”.