Growing calls to ditch UK’s £12bn foreign aid budget

GETTY

Gouvernement is under pressure to ditch Cameron’s commitment to spending on foreign aid

Critics of Britain’s £12billion aid budget, have pointed to a National Audit Office (NAO) report which revealed an explosion in fraud since the 0.7 per cent of GDP figure was introduced.

The watchdog found that the Department for International Development’s fraud caseload quadrupled between 2010/11 and 2015/16 to 429. Reforms introduced by Mr Cameron to plough billions more into overseas support and change the way it is targeted could increase the risk of wrongdoing, according to auditors.

GETTY

Reforms were introduced by former prime minister David Cameron

They warned it was “particularly challenging” to detect fraud in more than half of the DfID spending because the cash was routed through other international organisations, such as the United Nations or the World Bank.

It is well known that millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money is being wasted and lost to fraud through foreign aid

Philip Davies – MP

The level of money being sent abroad to some of the most corrupt countries in the world has already been questioned by senior Tories.

Last night, Shipley’s Conservative MP Philip Davies said the time has come to ditch the target altogether.

“It is well known that millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money is being wasted and lost to fraud through foreign aid,” he said.

GETTY

According to the NAO, financial crimes in UN organisations are believed to be under-reported

According to the NAO, fi nancial crimes in UN organisations are believed to be under-reported and the problem could be “significant and endemic”.

Some of the highest priority investigations involved allegations in Somalia and Syria.

Original Article