Government praised for Asian tsunami relief response
Thursday, 23 Nov 2006 00:01
300,000 people died following the tsunami
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MPs have praised the government for its response to the 2004 Boxing Day Asian tsunami that killed 300,000 people.
The House of Commons public accounts committee (PAC) says that the Department for International Development's (DfID) performance in the aftermath of the disaster was "rapid and impressive".
However, the committee's first report of the parliamentary session accuses the department of leaving £9 million in aid and donations in bank accounts accumulating interest.
More than 1.6 million people were left displaced in south and south-east Asia on December 26th 2004 following the series of tsunamis trigged by an Indian Ocean earthquake measuring nine on the Richter scale.
About £75 million in humanitarian assistance was committed to the redevelopment effort by the government, the PAC says, with £64.1 million of this spent directly by the DfID or through third-party grants by May 2006.
Committee chairman Edward Leigh today lauded the efforts of civil servants in going "straight back to their desks" when news of the tsunami broke, which practical aid said to be arriving within 24 hours in the affected areas.
But he adds: "It is clear now, however, that the department still has some lessons to learn. Nearly a year and a half after the disaster, it still had no idea whether some £9 million of the nearly £53 million it donated to agencies had been spent or not."
Today's report also calls on the DfID to develop a more "systematic framework" when coordinating aid efforts with the Ministry of Defence (MoD), as well as working more directly with international aid agencies.
"When disaster strikes on a large scale, a host of national and international agencies descend to provide aid. My committee has noted and supports the DfID's desire for the UN to coordinate these bodies better," Mr Leigh said.
Commenting on the MPs' findings, the shadow international development secretary Andrew Mitchell said that putting too much pressure on development agencies to spend aid money quickly could do "more harm than good".
"What matters is that the funds are spent effectively - and if that takes time, so be it," he explained.
Meanwhile the Liberal Democrats spokesperson on international development accused the government of "baffling mistakes".
"This report tells us that £9 million of relief money is still sitting in the bank accounts of third party organisations," said Susan Kramer.
"The government clearly does not know where tax payers' money is going, and even more worryingly, doesn't even have a proper system to find out."