Submission on auditing International Development aid given to multilateral organisations, Civil

Society Organisations and foreign governments to the International Commission of Labour’s

National Policy Forum

Regularly auditing International Development (ID) aid given to multilateral organisations, Civil
Society Organisations and foreign governments would answer the questions “Where and how can
Britain make a genuine difference around the world, in pursuit of peace, justice and human rights?
and “What can Labour do to ensure that the 0.7 per cent aid budget is protected and that it retains
public support?” asked in the International Commission’s discussion paper. Regular external
auditing would:

1) Provide assurance to UK taxpayers that ID funding is efficiently spent.

2) Provide recipients of ID aid with information to assist the improvement of the efficiency of their
organisations.

3) Provide recipients of ID aid with independent evidence of the efficiency and governance of their
organisations which they could present to potential donors and other interested parties.

4) In conjunction with the UK’s commitment to spend 0.7 per cent of its Gross National Income on
ID aid, provide evidence of the efficiency of ID funding in order to persuade other developed
countries to make similar commitments.

I would like to submit a proposal to audit all International Development aid given to multilateral
organisations, Civil Society Organisations and foreign governments to the International Standards
of Supreme Audit Institutions for public entities every five years and to publish the results. Any
organisations and governments that did not provide the necessary information for the audits would
have their aid suspended.