Nirj Deva says EU aid to Africa should be ring-fenced and monitored properly

The Conservative spokesman on international development in the European Parliament, Nirj Deva, has commented in light of an aid package worth nearly a quarter of a billion euro to Africa. Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad, Burundi, Tanzania, the Sahel region, Uganda and Zimbabwe have all been targetted.

Mr Deva comments:

"We must be able to monitor precisely where this money goes. Many of these countries are in clear need of humanitarian aid but are also at risk of great corruption.

EU money should be ring-fenced for specific projects whose progress can be clearly monitored. When such large sums are involved transparency must above all be upheld - too much of the money we send to help impoverished people ends up in the wrong pockets.

We should be focussing on outputs not inputs. Not just talking about how much money we are giving but about what we are getting for our money. In six months time the EU should be telling us precisely what our money has been spent on - how many people have been fed, how many tents have been erected, how many wells have been dug, how many vaccinations been given, how many displaced people re-housed.

In these times we all need to know that we are getting value for money, when there is less available we need to know it is being spent efficiently."