Ministers ‘massaging’ aid money
Debt cancellation to be counted towards aid targets for the first time
Ministers have been accused of using ‘made-up money’ to meet their overseas aid targets. They plan to cancel a debt owed by Sudan and have said the money involved will be counted as aid. The Department for International Development made the admission in an email to Jubilee Debt Campaign. The campaigners say the debt is based on (apparently arbitrary) interest rates and was not expected to be repaid.
The government is committed to spending 0.7 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) on aid. Jubilee Debt Campaign have calculated that cancellation of Sudan’s debt could account for seven per cent of this figure. While the previous government counted debt cancellation as aid, this appears to be the first time it has been counted towards aid targets.
Sudan’s current debt of £678 million is based on annual interest rates of ten to twelve per cent since the country defaulted on its debt in 1984. The debt was then only £173 million.
‘Debt cancellation would cost the UK government nothing and will not make any more money available to Sudan,’ insisted Tim Jones of Jubilee Debt Campaign, ‘The debt should be cancelled because it is unjust and unpayable, not used to meet targets and massage figures’.
