Overseas Aid

[Mo2013]

http://www.theguardian.com/global-devel ... y-datasets

[towny44]

Towny44, it wasn't just Britain who entered into such a commitment and I would deplore a reneging on any such commitment; you may find it helpful to read up on this commitment. Whatever the rights and wrongs in people's minds about whether or not Britain should be giving aid overseas, the fact is that this country is honouring a commitment made in the past - along with other countries, which answers the question about whether the country should be doing it.

Mo, My view is that every firm long term Govt. commitment should be reviewed periodically to ensure that the original premise still holds true, but I do tend to feel that overseas aid would probably still pass the test.
However I also feel that the distribution of this aid needs to be subject to stronger auditing to ensure that it does fulfill the original aim, or the aim that has been sold to the UK electorate.
But I am also enough of a cynic to consider that maybe the current process does fulfill the Govts. intention of ensuring that recipient politicians are sufficiently beholden to the UK to ensure that we receive adequate trade benefits to make the process cost effective. And of course this also ensures that not enough money reaches the poor in these countries, and thus they remain dependent on the incumbent politicians, a vicious circle if ever there was one.
Personally I would like to see this circle broken, but I doubt it will happen.

[Mo2013]

Towny, you make valid points and I cannot disagree.

[The Monocled Mutineer]

Agreed all government departments should be and are carefully audited.

I warrant that the Dept for Overseas Development is better audited than Defence Procurement, the latter being particularly bad during the last years of the last government.

[towny44]

Agreed all government departments should be and are carefully audited.

I warrant that the Dept for Overseas Development is better audited than Defence Procurement, the latter being particularly bad during the last years of the last government.

Derek, Your comments confuse me, first you say all Govt. dept are carefully audited, then you state that Defense procurement was bad during last Govt.
Since I am very sceptical that auditors know what they are doing, witness the banks, Enron and similar scandals, then even if Govt. depts are being carefully audited it does not satisfy my innate cynicsm that everything in the garden is nowhere near rosy.
The NHS is a typical example of no matter how much money you throw at some organisations, they still function at way below acceptable levels. In my view the only way to ensure that an organisation gives value for money is to continually demand savings until the proverbial pips squeak, and getting back to overseas aid I firmly believe that you could achieve double the current benefits for half the money if you followed this approach, but of course Parisian apartments, executive jets and even Raybans would need to go.