Foreign Aid farce......

[Acido]

I'd rather eat my own excrement than wear a florist shirt!!!!!!!!

What you lot get up to in private, in the East Midlands is your own business

[claw84]

The petition has now reached 222,000, pretty impressive.

The debate will take place on June13th, at the Commons.

[AnagRam]

So out of an electorate totalling around 45,000,000 you've got 222,000 signatories to use up Parliamentary time debating the questionable use of a small proportion of the 0.7% of our budget that we spend on foreign aid?
In other words...less than 0.5% of the electorate forcing a Commons debate on less than 0.5% of our annual spending. Congratulations...at least you got the title of the thread right.

[claw84]

Anag you know it makes sense, we need a lot of money for this country, a lot of deserving cases.

To send 12 billion overseas to Dictators and crooked foreign officials is helping very few.

Working in the oil industry in Nigeria was a nightmare, to get anything done you always had to bribe (dash) officials Everyone was at it.

[AnagRam]

I know it makes sense? I know no such thing. I think it is likely that some of the money we send abroad is misappropriated. I'm sure some of the leaders of some foreign countries are corrupt and I'll bow to your better knowledge of Nigeria.
Equally, I know some of our politicians - both local and national - are just as corrupt, as are some of our bankers and businessmen.
If you began a petition to end corruption and misappropriation of public money by political/business/banking figures I'd almost certainly sign, but why concentrate on the small percentage of the pittance we donate in terms of Foreign Aid?
Considering this issue got me to thinking about how much I donate to specific charities on a regular basis. It came to a whopping 1.5% in terms of annual outgoings. Pathetic really, but as an individual, microcosm type basis, it equates to in the region of twice what we as a nation provide in terms of Foreign Aid. Food for thought?

[roger_ramjet]

Food for thought indeed....you had better cut your charity spend to more reasonable levels Anag, and stop giving so much to North Korean causes

[roger_ramjet]

But on a serious note the tales of Nigerian (in particular) corruption are rife. If you think its bad in the oil industry then try the shipping and import/export business.

This is why I restrict my charity giving to UK charities where some of the money might get to the intended recipients as opposed to ending up in questionable pockets

[AfghanRam]

I think you will be surprised at how money donate to charities are misspent, While doing my FM training I visited a well know charity in London who were spending a whopping £8M on a building that they didn't own. Not for profit organisations often have no clue on how best to manage accounts. They took me round the building and showed me an area that was yet to be refurbished and it looked in pretty good nick. I won't bore you with all the details but it was obvious that they were spunking money up the wall when I asked how much they were paying for a task chair (Computer chair), a whopping £550. FFS that is ridiculous, it doesn't sound a lot but when you have as many people as they have in a building that's some serious dough. It was justified, because the normal price should be £850 and they got a large discount. Smoke and mirrors if you ask me, as an accountant Roger's blood should be boiling, I would expect a charity to keep it running costs to a minimum; they should pass on a

[AnagRam]

I do largely the same as far as charity giving is concerned Roger and I take your point. I also agree with Afghan having had much the same experience of how money can be wasted when sitting on a school governing body some years ago and witnessing how much Derby City Council were wasting.
That is kind of my point though. This waste is not restricted to public spending - as the ongoing Edinburgh school building fiasco shows - and it's not restricted to Foreign Aid either. I have never tried to deny that a proportion of the money spent on Foreign Aid gets wasted as a result of corruption, dishonesty and inadequacy...I just feel that the same is true in so many walks of life so why pick on Foreign Aid, which represents a tiny amount and, as was absolutely the case in this thread, almost inevitably gives immediate rise to the usual racist and jingoistic rants?
Charity may 'begin at home' but it should not, imo, end there.