New overseas aid watch-dog to scrutinise impact
Former president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), Graham Ward, has been confirmed as the new chief commissioner for the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) which will use a traffic light system in around 20 reports a year to rate the effectiveness of overseas aid programmes.
It is independent from the government and reports directly to Parliament. Secretary of State for international development, Andrew Mitchell, said: "The UK government is dispensing with the power to sweep things under the carpet. The Commission will shine a light on where aid works and where improvements are needed. We will lead other donors in opening our books to independent scrutiny. We have a duty to squeeze 100 pence of value from every pound.”
Independent Commission reports will be published on their website directly and their findings will be immediately available to the UK taxpayer and recipient countries.The DFID overseas aid budget largely escaped the scythe of the Comp-rehensive Spending Review with 0.56 per cent of GDP to be spent this year and next, rising to 0.7 per cent by 2013. However, its running costs are to be reduced to two per cent of total spending by 2015 (half the global donor average of four per cent).Speaking at Crowe Clark Whitehill’s annual INGO conference in November 2010, former MI6 second-in-command Nigel Inkster reminded delegates that overseas aid will be repositioned to “focus on countries that are vulnerable in security terms.”
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