A critical National Audit Office report has today said the government is "falling short" in its handling of aid spending.
The report has prompted Oxfam and Save the Children to express concerns about aid spending by departments other than the Department for International Development.
The NAO report, Managing the Official Development Assistance, says that an increasing amount of the UK aid budget is being spent by government departments other than DfID, but that there are concerns about how other departments spend the money.
In 2013, DfID spent 88 per cent of the total budget; in 2015, it was just over 80 per cent.
Fourteen departments are now involved in distributing aid, but the NAO said that five of the 11 that it looked at spent more than half their budgets in last quarter of the year - indicating a rush to get the money out of the door, and consequentially lower outcomes.
The NAO said that having so many departments involved had led to "gaps in accountability".
Charities have called for a halt to increases in aid budget for departments other than DfID.
‘No financial increases to non-DfID departments’
Save the Children and Oxfam have both called for any planned increases outside of DfID to be put on hold.
Kirsty McNeill, executive director of policy, advocacy and campaigns, said: “UK aid is increasingly being spent by government departments, including the Foreign Commonwealth Office, who do not always meet the same high standards as DfID.
“Save the Children is calling for the government to pause any increase in aid spent outside of DfID until other departments become fully transparent and meet the same standards of quality and transparency. This will help to ensure the British public can be proud of every penny spent which has had a life-changing impact.”
Richard Pyle, head of policy at Oxfam, said: “The UK public rightly expects the government to be clear about where aid money is spent and for it to be spent effectively to help those most in need. This report shows that too often other departments - to whom the government is giving increasing volumes of aid - are falling short in this respect. No financial increases should be made by ministers to non-DfID departments, without action to improve the transparency and quality of aid they deliver.”
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