5 Technical Co-operation
48. The Department spends about £450 million
a year, equivalent to around 10% of its total bilateral programme
on technical cooperation. This figure is based on a broad definition
of technical cooperation, including, according to the NAO, work
to enhance the knowledge, skills and capability of people in recipient
countries and to assist the provision of services in developing
countries, but also the management, on the Department's behalf,
of large strategic programmes. It uses a large number of providers
for these services, but an increasing proportion of funding is
concentrated in the largest 20 suppliers.[49]
49. In this section we look at whether the Department
is obtaining value for money from its expenditure on technical
co-operation, whether it has the right balance between expenditure
on consultants and the use of in-house expertise and, most importantly,
whether the Department should make as much use as it does of consultants
to run its major service delivery programmes.
The use of consultants to enhance
the knowledge, skills and capability of people in recipient countries
50. The Department pointed out that it is basically
a commissioning organisation unlike development organisations
such as the German Technical Co-operation Foundation, which employees
15,000 experts who deliver the programme. The Department pays
technical co-operation providers for advisory services to developing
countries. We understand the rationale for paying for technical
experts to provide services in developing countries, but sought
assurance from DFID that it was keeping costs down and using in-house
capacity where this provided better value-for-money. We questioned
in particular why the Department was paying consultants large
amounts of public money in fees for development work when it was
cutting its use of consultants advising on internal strategy.
51. The Department informed us that it used a competitive
system to drive down costs, but in some cases, the skills were
in short supply and providers could charge a premium.[50]
It also informed us that it was employing additional in-house
experts in some fields, such as public financial management, but
it would never be able to have a full spectrum of international
expertise within the Department.
The reason we have the model we have [with DFID as
a commissioner of services] is so that we are not providing only
things we happen to have but are able to respond to requests that
evolve over time from different countries.[51]
The use of consultants to manage
DFID service delivery programmes
52. We also asked the Department about the use of
consultants to manage DFID's own service delivery programmes.
The response was unfortunately unclear.[52]
Worryingly, the Department was unable to quantify how much
it has paid on different types of technical co-operation as its
information systems do not enable it to identify expenditure by
purpose.[53]
53. The
Department needs to improve its assessment of which types of projects
and services it should use consultants for; in particular, DFID
should assess more carefully the use of consultants to manage
the Department's own service delivery programmes.. We also recommend
that DFID identify expenditure on technical co-operation by purpose.
Parliamentary strengthening programmes
54. As part of its technical cooperation work, the
Department works to strengthen the capacity of parliaments in
developing countries. In the inquiry we considered two aspects
of this work:
- the role of public accounts committees; and
- the role of MPs and the UK Parliament
PUBLIC ACCOUNTS COMMITTEES
55. We questioned officials about the work of parliamentary
public accounts committees and whether it would be possible to
tie DFID aid in a particular country to the notice that governments
took of their own parliamentary public accounts committees. We
were informed that public accounts committees' reports in many
developing countries were improving. The Permanent Secretary said:
'when we are providing budget support in a country,
we say that 5% of the resource we will provide will go to strengthening
all of those accountability systems. It is partly about what parliaments
do, but I think it has to go more broadly as well. The media has
a really important role to play. NGOs, thinktanks and other lobby
groups have an important role to play, so that it becomes impossible
for the executive to ignore the legislature when something is
found that needs to be sorted out. We need to strengthen all those
things, and personally, I would like to see the Department doing
more over the next few years.[54]
The Permanent Secretary added that focusing on public
financial management and better use of resources was a 'growing
priority'. DFID was also not providing any money through the government
in countries where corruption was rife, such as the Democratic
Republic of Congo. The Department was attempting to achieve this
whilst avoiding 'punishing the poor for the sins of their leaders'.[55]
THE ROLE OF THE UK MPS AND THE UK
PARLIAMENT
56. DFID has 15 schemes for parliamentary support
programmes as part of its bilateral programmes. The Permanent
Secretary said:
Building up the whole of the accountability side
in developing countries is a priority [...] We do a little bit
more than we used to; it includes the media, civil society, the
private sector and a range of others, but parliaments are obviously
fundamental.[56]
57. DFID has used a variety of organisations to undertake
this work. Some projects had been unsuccessful, such as a UNDP-led
project in Bangladesh in 2001-05. A report which the Department
commissioned in 2007 on Parliamentary strengthening in developing
countries from ODI, noted:
UNDP was the lead agency, tasked with the role of
coordination and managing pooled funds. There was much delay,
and little progress was made. Indeed the project completion report
suggested that this was "an example of how not to approach
strengthening parliamentary committees[57]
58. Officials agreed that there was scope, as part
of its parliamentary strengthening work, for the Department to
support better links between developing countries' parliaments
and UK parliamentarians and organisations.[58]
59. The ODI report in 2007 set out a series of recommendations
of how to achieve this. It particularly emphasised the unique
relationship between MPs in different parliaments and parliamentary
staff in the strengthening parliaments. The relationship was judged
to be particularly strong in Commonwealth legislatures. We agree
with the ODI report that there is huge respect for the procedures
of the British Houses of Parliament and its officials in
Commonwealth and other legislatures. DFID working in partnership
with the Overseas Offices of both Houses, the Commonwealth Parliamentary
Association (CPA) UK, the Inter-Parliamentary Union British Group,
the Westminster foundation for Democracy to deliver parliamentary
strengthening projects would offer good value for money for DFID
parliamentary strengthening work.
60. We
recommend that, following the recommendations of the 2007 ODI
report, the relevant senior DFID officials meet representatives
of both Houses' Overseas offices, Commonwealth Parliamentary Association
UK, the Inter-Parliamentary Union British Group, the Westminster
foundation for Democracy to determine how best British parliamentarians
and parliamentary staff (and former MPs and staff who may have
more time) can contribute to DFID's parliamentary strengthening
policy and programmes.
61. There
is also greater scope for supporting parliamentarians in developing
countries to hold their own governments and donors and multilateral
agencies to account on behalf of their constituents. Public Accounts
Committees in developing countries have a key role to play. We
recommend that DFID enhance its work in this area and its response
to this report indicate how it plans to do so.
49 NAO, op.cit., para 5.7-5.8 Back
50
Q 43 Back
51
Q 45 Back
52
Q 42 Back
53
Q 40 Back
54
Q 35 Back
55
Q 36 Back
56
Q 53 Back
5 57 7
Overseas Development Institute, Parliamentary strengthening
in developing countries, 2007 Back
58
Qq 35, 53-54 Back
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