§ Mrs. EwingTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how he will(a) monitor Britain's contributions to multilateral aid and (b) ensure that those contributions are (i) well-spent and (ii) subject to parliamentary scrutiny.
§ Mr. BaldryThe United Kingdom participates actively in meetings at which overall policy priorities and expenditure proposals by multilateral organisations are discussed. The policies and programmes of the multilateral development banks are discussed and determined by their respective boards of directors, on all202W of which the United Kingdom is represented. For assistance channelled through the European Community, policy issues are discussed in the Council of Ministers of the European Union and project proposals are considered in management committees. There is frequent contact between ODA administrators and advisers with the senior management of the multilateral institutions, a major objective being to help improve the efficiency of their systems and procedures including evaluation. Contributions to multilateral organisations which are administered by ODA form part of the aid programme which is subject to scrutiny by Parliament.