Government denies "wasting" African aid money

Sunday, 28 August 2005 12:00 AM

The Government has denied "wasting" hundreds of thousands of pounds earmarked to provide aid to Malawi, following claims made in a new BBC report.

More than £700,000 of aid provided to the African nation, considered to be the world's tenth-poorest country, was spent on hotel bills and meals for US consultants over a four year period, the investigation for BBC radio's Five Live programme alleges.

The probe looked at several projects funded by the Department for International Development (DFID).

The department has defended the aid programmes it funds for Malawi, but has acknowledged that there were problems with a particular project, aimed at improving the African country's parliamentary committee system, which was later cancelled.

During the course of the four-year programme, DFID donated £3 million to the project. Of that, the BBC claims that £586,423 was spent on hotels in Malawi for staff from the US consultancy, the National Democratic Institute (NDI). Another £126,062 was reportedly spent on meals.

A former staff member on the project also claims that money was used to fly over stationary including pens and notebooks bought in Washington DC, rather than equipment being purchased locally.

The National Audit Office has said that it may now launch an investigation into DFID's funding of consultants for aid projects.

Defending its work in a statement, DFID said: "For poverty to be reduced in Malawi, it needs an effective parliament and strong civil society organisations."

"This is why the DFID has provided funding to parliament, civil society and election processes."

The department added that it had "acted quickly" to resolve problems with projects where they had been identified.

Anti-poverty campaigning groups have reacted angrily to the BBC report.

"(This is) another example of aid money not really getting down to people who most urgently need to benefit from it," said Patrick Watt of charity Action Aid.

"It's an example of phantom aid, when what Malawi needs is real aid," he added.

Shadow International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell said the report indicated a breakdown in "transparency and accountability."

"Hardworking taxpayers want to help end poverty but they expect the money to be spent in an effective and accountable way," he said.

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