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‘British overseas aid budget goes indirectly to terror groups’
Sat Aug 10, 2013 10:36PM GMT
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The UK government has indirectly funded al-Qaeda terrorist groups through sending taxpayer-funded aid in a way that could be “confiscated” by the terrorists, admits the Department for International Development (DFID).
At least 3 months before any action was taken, al-Shabaab, the Somali-based terrorist group has managed to seize the equipment from DfID contractors in multiple incidents, local media reported.
After repeated “confiscations” by al-Shabaab, £480,000 worth of
“humanitarian materials and supplies” was written off, DfID’s statistics showed.
The British government is increasingly expanding its spending cuts plans in a bid to contain the budget crisis developed in the wake economic meltdown in the country.
Yet, it’s expenditure on foreign aid is dramatically rising and is due to reach about £11billion by 2015, to meet the government’s pledge that aid spending should be 0.7 percent of gross national income.
This is while that the proportion of foreign aid spent on the poorest countries has dropped from 80 percent to just over 65 percent under the coalition government.
“There is huge public concern at the relentless increase in overseas aid. Incidents like this, where British taxpayers’ money is diverted into people fighting against us, are not acceptable. DfID owes it to the public to exercise the utmost care with its money”, said Sir Gerald Howarth, a Conservative MP.
Meanwhile, an aid industry expert slammed the DfID for negligence saying that the “huge amount of aid lost could help the terrorists survive for a fairly long time”.
“It is surprising that no action was taken, which suggests that, at best, DfID was asleep to the loss of its property and, at worst, that its local partners were colluding with the terrorists,” the aid expert said.
The accounts show the confiscations took place between November 2011 and February 2012 and from multiple locations.
It has also been disclosed that last year at least £1.5bn of British taxpayers money have been given to countries which are developing their own space and ballistic missile programs, The Times reported.
Matthew Sinclair, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance deplored the government for seeking to increase the amount of overseas aid.
“If a foreign government has enough cash to invest in an ambitious space programme, it should not expect to be receiving cash from the UK which is earmarked for helping the world’s poorest,” he told the paper.
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