Kenyan development aid is not delivering taxpayer value
Posted on 31 January 2006
UK taxpayers are contributing increasingly towards the Department for International Development. Their contributions should be protected to ensure their support is wisely spent. The government's Gershon review of DFID's spending highlighted £422m of efficiency gains that DFID should make, while the James review highlighted £809m that should be redirected or saved. Both reviews highlight a sizable amount of DFID's budget that is being misspent.In Kenya, it is increasingly clear that UK taxpayers are getting poor value for the development aid they are sending. As the Guardian reported yesterday, Kenya's anti-corruption tsar went AWOL, eventually found hiding in an Oxford college. "It didn't take a genius, after all, to guess that when the official responsible for policing an African government's finances flees, something is seriously amiss," says the Guardian. The paper continues:
The contents of a 36-page dossier compiled in exile are being drip-fed to a transfixed audience. His dossier accuses a clutch of key ministers, including the finance minister, of setting up bogus contracts designed to steal hundreds of millions of dollars in public funds. The scandal stretches to the top, for, despite being briefed by Githongo, President Mwai Kibaki took no action. All those named protest their innocence. But if the claims are true - and few whistleblowers come with more credibility than Githongo - Kenya's three-year-old government has not so much broken with the sleazy practices of Daniel arap Moi's administration as raised them to new levels of sophistication.
Hilary Benn recently announced £55m in new aid for Kenya. This is remarkable given the levels of corruption that have been pointed to by Sir Edward Clay, until recently the Kenyan High Commissioner, who pointed to the "massive looting" of public funds in Kenya. Last year, the Sunday Times reported that for in the previous three years, nearly a fifth of the Kenyan government's budget was lost to corruption.
DFID top-down approach to development aid in Kenya is stuck in the past. It is a waste of UK taxpayers' contributions and it is a slap in the face for ordinary Kenya citizens who find that aid, meant for them, is being siphoned off by politicians. Unfortunately, Hilary Benn has effectively turned a blind eye. This is a tragedy.