Documents released under Freedom of Information expose a criminal trail in some of the world's poorest countries, with widespread theft of money and forging of receipts.
These revelations will do little to boost public confidence in a foreign aid program that is forecast to nearly double to $8 billion a year by 2015. FOI documents reveal how taxpayers' money is being squandered, with corrupt local officials and agencies profiting at the expense of the poor. Australia is one of the biggest aid donors in the world, focusing on the Asia-Pacific although the Government wants to expand its aid funding into Africa over the coming years.
While AusAID insists it is improving fraud control, the documents also reveal police are often reluctant to intervene and charge local criminals - frustrating the agency's attempts to recover missing aid money.
One example (among several) given is the case where the Eritrean Government in 2006 seized food and other supplies from the UN's World Food Program, saddling Australian taxpayers with a probable loss of $1.25 million.
www.news.com.au/national/millions-lost-in-foreign-aid-scam/story-e6frfkvr-1226027078871
Well-Being Australia chairman Mark Tronson has heard it all before; that this 'wastage' is part and parcel of dealing with the so called third world and the aid eventually, albeit at inflated prices, gets to the people by one means or another.
But M V Tronson questions these optimistic sentiments.
Christian Missions have found ways to ensure that every dollar given to world aid gets spent in such a way that the recipients receive every cent of value.
One of the acknowledged issues with Christian Mission aid activities is that they are working in very specific locations, they do not generally have the reach and diversity to get to the people within an entire region or state or indeed a nation. However, nor do Government aid agencies.
But this can be turned into an advantage. In many cases, the regional locations in which Missions have been involved over many years have grown 'out of abject poverty' with the self help programs that Missions develop.
To multiply that level of assistance and development to a whole region or state demands a much greater level of careful and diligent supervision. Herein lies one of the issues that Missions are always contending with; that of willing local workers that can be paid and also trusted. The West doesn't seem to be as concerned with this as they keep giving aid that gets swept away as described in the article referenced above.
Having acknowledged those difficulties, nonetheless, a Mission's welfare dollar goes a whole lot further than any Government dollar, and in this, there may be lessons for a way forward on a more bureaucratic format.
There is a case to be made where Government aid could be redirected from United Nations agencies which have something of a name for being leaky, to that of established Missions. The Government could develop programs utilising the experience of Missions to actually reach the people the aid was originally intended.
Such a scenario would inevitably get cries of foul play from those within the current system, along with a plethora a complaints by the anti-Christian lobby. But it is something to be seriously considered, unless it is Government policy to have their aid re-diverted with a philosophy that it helps such national economies.
More is the pity.