Foreign aid spending a mess since Foreign Office set up, watchdog warns

Foreign aid has been thrown into confusion between the hands of the Foreign Office, a watchdog warns, leaving countries in the dark about how and why the money is being spent.

In a damning report, the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) attacks a dramatic loss of 'transparency' since the controversial abolition of the Department for International Development (DFID) in 2020.

It warns of the lack of information on "spending priorities for each country", with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs failing even to establish an appropriate budget this year.

As a result, the "capacity of parliament and civil society e to hold government to account" - and the UK's reputation as a "world leader in transparent aid transparency" - is being lost.

"DFID has spearheaded efforts to increase transparency, helping to improve the value for money of UK aid and build confidence in the UK aid programme,” said the ICAI Commissioner, Tarek Rouchdy.

"But there are now concerns that the commitment to transparency has changed and the presumption of disclosure has been weakened."

The findings confirm the groups' worst fears. aid who fought the removal of DFID and the loss of experienced staff when it was swallowed up in the new name of the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).

They report that partner organizations in the recipient countries no longer receive the information they need on aid spending, which makes them nd more difficult to structure work and avoid duplication.

The problems are fueled by the chaotic way in which an estimated £4 billion was suddenly cut from spending, when the national income share UK aid allocation has been cut from 0.7 to 0.5% .

There was a shock last month when the UK failed to donate t o a United Nations fund for victims of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria - even as the Democratic Republic of the Congo gave $6 million.

And The Independent revealed that a further £3 billion could be cut from aid projects unless ministers scrap rules diverting a quarter of the cut budget to Ukrainian refugee costs in the UK.

Abigael Baldoumas, policy officer at aid organization Bond, said: "The government is grappling with a crisis in transp lack of aid in the UK.

"The FCDO has allowed the transparency of the UK's aid budget to collapse in recent years, which not only weakens its accountability to the UK taxpayer and the communities we work with, but hinders the support we provide to the world's most marginalized people.

The ICAI report highlights that while DFID has published detailed expenditure and outcome statistics, as well as program documents, on an online tracking tool, only "summary information" is now available. available.

Although the Aid Transparency Index gave the FCDO a "good" rating at 71.9% this year, this is a drop from the norm "very good" from DFID - 85.4% - in 2020.

Ominously, the FCDO pledged only to improve its score, rather than reverse the decline completely, pointing out "a cultural change towards aid transparency in the new department".

Mr. Baldoumas added: “The FCDO already has the tools to restore transparency and accountability to aid in the UK. What is needed now is a show of political will.”

< p>A spokesperson for the FCDO said: "As this report acknowledges, the UK is a world leader in aid transparency and we are committed to maintaining our record in this area.

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"The department welcomes the report and will work to move forward with its recommendations."