§ Mr. Terlezkiasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what guarantee he receives that aid given to Third world countries in cash is being used by the respective Governments exclusively for consumer goods for the people of those countries and in creating jobs; and what means he uses to ensure that money is not used for other unintended purposes.
390W
§ Mr. RaisonAll British bilateral aid for individual countries is provided for specified purposes which are agreed with the recipient Government at the outset, and expenditure is monitored to ensure that it is used for those purposes. Such aid is not made available to developing countries in the form of cash, except for the relatively small amounts that are provided for budgetary aid, to reimburse the local costs of projects and, from time to time, to help alleviate the effects of disasters.
About 80 per cent. of bilateral aid is spent in Britain on British goods and services. It consists for the most part of capital goods, or goods to maintain the existing stock of plant and equipment, rather than direct consumer goods for the people. For the small proportion that is made available in cash, special accounting and audit procedures are applied.