Transparent Irish Aid is ‘example’ to charities

Charities in hot water over their failure to disclose financial details should follow the example of Irish Aid when it comes to transparency, the minister in charge of the programme has said.

Overseas Development Minister Joe Costello yesterday published a report on how Irish Aid spent €637m of public money helping some of the world’s poorest countries last year.

He said strict standards of audits and oversight were a must across all the channels used to route money to projects abroad, with everything from spending in the field to CEOs’ salaries open to scrutiny.

“We must be clear, and the taxpayer must be clear, how the money is being spent, and we must be able to answer any questions that are asked about it,” he said.

“People could take a leaf from Irish Aid in the sense of the level of transparency that our partners and the NGOs have to show.”

The Minister said Irish Aid would not be resuming direct aid payments to the Ugandan government any time soon as the fallout from the disappearance of €4m in 2012 continued.

The money was returned by the Ugandan government with interest and it has been re-routed through independent charities.

“We’re going to monitor progress there, but also we have difficulties with the anti-homosexual legislation which was introduced recently,” Mr Costello said.

Thirty-four countries received aid ranging from just over €1m to €41.5m last year, while others received smaller amounts. Mozambique, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Zambia and Vietnam each received more than €10m.

Funds were routed directly through governments as well as NGOs, based both in Ireland and within the recipient countries.

Some 184 NGOs got funds ranging from €50,000 to €23m while others got smaller amounts. The biggest recipients were: Concern, €23m; Trócaire, €18m; Misean Cara, €16m; Goal, €15.5m; Red Cross and Red Crescent, €9.2m; Self Help Africa, €4.8m and Christian Aid Ireland, €4.4m.

The bulk of funding routed through governments and NGOs was for long-term development projects, but €94m was sent to provide emergency relief to areas affected by natural disaster, conflict and famine.

Ireland’s overseas aid budget rose slightly last year to €637m after four years of reductions from a high of €921m in 2008, but as a percentage of GNP it fell from 0.47% to 0.46%, moving further from the UN target of 0.7%.

Mr Costello said it was still the intention to reach the 0.7% target.

He hoped to stay in his position after next week’s ministerial reshuffle. “I’ve a lot of work to do in this particular ministry. I’d be very happy to be left here.”