UK foreign aid spending must be more transparent; here’s six rules – Yorkshire Post Letters

I READ with interest the article by Bird Lovegod (The Yorkshire Post, June 22) and his view that overseas charity donations are institutionally dysfunctional and in need of an overhaul to save them being ground to nothing.

He sensibly suggests the following simple steps:

* Donations are made.

* The money is transferred to trusted overseas contacts.

* They buy the products and deliver them to those in need.

* The process is documented and posted on a dedicated website.

* Anyone can see what the contribution was used for.

* Producing a very worthy audit trail of events, totally transparent and void of corruption.

Surely these rules should also be applied to our far more extensive Government overseas aid programme, as we are all contributors?

From: Jill Natusch, Sidmouth, Devon.

BORIS Johnson’s significant cut in the foreign aid budget is having serious consequences for desperate families in many parts of the world.

Before anyone replies with a “charity begins at home” sermon, I remind readers of the Government’s record on improving child poverty in England.

The number of children now eligible for free school meals on his watch has risen dramatically in this past year to 1.7 million pupils. I do not believe that we, as a society, should choose between supporting families at home or abroad – we should do both.

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