Britain launches inquiry into misuse of India education aid

m.today

London, Jun 14 : Shocked by reports of massive embezzlement in India in the use of millions of pounds granted as aid for education, Britain today promised ’’zero tolerance to corruption’’ and launched an ’’immediate inquiry’’.

 

 

In a statement to PTI, the International Development secretary Andrew Mitchell said the allegations reported from India about widespread corruption in the use of British aid was "shocking".

"These are shocking allegations. I have launched an immediate inquiry to ensure British aid money has not been misused. The new British Government will have a zero tolerance policy to corruption," he said.

"When I took up this job a month ago I made a pledge to British taxpayers; they must know that for every pound of their money, we will get 100 pence of value," he added.
Mitchell said he was reviewing "every single one" of the Department for International Development’s country programmes to ensure that Britain gave aid to where it was most needed, to help the world’s poorest people.

"But I want to go much further. This is why last week I announced a new independent aid watchdog - to scrutinise aid on the taxpayers’ behalf. In future we will also publish all details of the department’s spending on our website," he said.

According to DFID figures, 24 per cent of Britain annual aid to India is earmarked for education. Reports in the British media about the corruption in India mentioned a figure of 340 million pounds in aid to a schools project for children under the age of14.
One audit of money earmarked for the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan project found that 70 million pounds had reportedly vanished. A report in the ’The News of the World’ quoted India’s Auditor General as saying that that almost 14 million pounds had been spent on items and luxuries that had nothing to do with schools.

 

"Cash meant for kids’ education has been blown on luxuries. We discovered that officials throughout the country had used it to buy new cars and in one instance aid cash was spent on four luxury beds costing a total of 17,754 pounds as well as a 3,803 pounds computer," the report said.

Meanwhile, Human Resource Development Ministry sources in New Delhi said the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) scheme has a very robust financial monitoring system which includes an annual audit by chattered accountants empanelled by the CAG, concurrent financial review by Institute of Public Auditors of India, periodic performance review by the CAG and quarterly review with the financial controllers of states SSA societies.

Large amounts of money were shown to have been spent on schools that reportedly did not exist, while in some cases air conditioners, faxes, photocopiers and 7,531 colour television sets were reportedly bought despite there being no electricity supplies. The report said that 150,000 pounds was paid into a mystery bank account with no reason given.It quoted a report by the Institute of Public Auditors of India that in Bihar children were reportedly being taught in open fields, because money had not been passed on for classroom repairs. In Muzzaffarpur they found that only £400,000 out of an allocated £1.1 million had gone to schools.

One woman involved in the widespread fraud has been accused of siphoning off up to 6 million pounds from the funds, even using 44,000 pounds of it to make a movie directed by her son.

"Auditors checking individual state accounts found sums up to 4.8 million pounds missing from the books," the report said.

India is one of the largest recipients of British foreign aid.HRD ministry sources said a recent post-procurement review of 800 sample contracts was done by the World Bank which showed only 0.6 per cent of diversion of funds were noticed. Wherever there is any diversion or mis-procurement, strong corrective action  including filing of criminal cases have been done, they said.

Besides, annual audit report of SSA society are in public domain. Bi-annual joint review missions are conducted in which Government of India’s nominee and representatives of SSA development partners including the World Bank, DFID and EU conduct depth review of the SSA goals, they added.The DFID’s contribution to SSA is about two per cent of the total funds under the scheme.