Examination of Witnesses (Questions 176
- 179)
THURSDAY 15 JUNE 2000
MR PETER
FREEMAN, MR
FRANK BLACK,
MR JOHN
KELLY, MS
GLYNIS DAVIES,
MS PATRICIA
SCOTLAND AND
DR KEN
GRANT
Chairman
176. Can I say how delighted we are to be here
in East Kilbride and in Abercrombie Castle, or House, and thank
you to those responsible — I know Dave Fish is at the back
there — for making us welcome and making the arrangements
for today's events? Inevitably many of our questions will be probing
and we do not intend them to be corrosive. We wish to find out
what is actually going on from your perspective and we are, of
course, picking up evidence from the written evidence we have
received on the question of procurement by the Department for
International Development, and therefore we shall be concentrating
on some of the more critical aspects of your work. But we do know,
because we have seen it overseas, of some of the excellent work
that you do and we have seen it in the field, most recently in
Mozambique where, you will have noticed I have no doubt, the Committee
praised the efforts on procurement which were very fast and effectively
in that area of the flood, but also of course in less heroic circumstances
in Zambia, South Africa and Malawi. But also the Committee has
seen some of your excellent work in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan,
Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda. So we are not here to be huge critics
of your work, we are here to find out and also to help you be
more effective, if we can be, and understood better, shall I say,
by those with whom you work and indeed by the British public in
general and Parliament. So I going to ask to lead off on the Civil
Society Challenge Fund, Tony Worthington, who does not live far
from here.
(Mr Freeman) Chairman, would it help
the Committee if I introduced my colleagues to start with?
177. I think it would, yes. Would you tell us
what their responsibilities are? It would be very useful for us
and for the shorthand writer, yes.
(Mr Freeman) If I might, I will introduce them, and
if it is all right with you, Chairman, just say a few introductory
words as well. I will be very short. On my right is Mr Frank Black,
who is going to lead for us on the questioning on the civil society.
He heads the Civil Society Unit here. With him is Patricia Scotland,
who also works on the civil society side. The Management Board
Member responsible for civil society is Barrie Ireton who could
not, unfortunately, be here today. I am the Management Board Member
responsible for the procurement side and with me I have, on my
left, John Kelly, who heads the services and contracts side and
Glynis Davies, who is head of the Procurement Policy Unit. You
have also invited Dr Ken Grant, who is Director of one of our
research centres, and I know you have invited him specifically
to come along and join us and we welcome that. Could I just welcome
the Committee to Abercrombie House? I believe this is the first
time that any parliamentary committee has held a hearing here
and you are extremely welcome, and in particular to welcome Mr
Colman, whom I have not met before, as I think this is your first
appearance in a hearing of this particular Committee.
Mr Colman
178. Second.
(Mr Freeman) Second, I beg your pardon. I welcome
you on DFID's behalf. We very much welcome the continuing interest
of the Committee, both in the Departmental Report and in these
two areas in particular. I will, if I might, say something particularly
on the procurement side but I will wait to do that until you get
on to that line of questioning if you want to start on the civil
society first.
Chairman
179. Yes, we had in mind, the Civil Society
Challenge Fund first, and then we are going to go to DFID's contracting
arrangements and under that we have Resource Centres, John Snow
International, Complaints, Competition for Contracts, the Selection
of Contractors, Evaluation and Assessment, Skills Transfer and
Capacity Building, Anti-Corruption Measures, Aid Tying. That is
our agenda this morning. So perhaps that might come in after the
Civil Society Challenge Fund. Would that be a sensible place to
slot in that introduction on the procurement area?
(Mr Freeman) Yes.
Chairman: Thank you very much.
Mr Rowe: Chairman, one other thing on
a point of order, I think. I ought to at least make it clear for
the record what you have all known for a long time, and that is
that my wife works for the Centre for International Child Health,
which is of course involved in the development field and comes
across DFID in a number of different ways. I have to say that
most of the walls in my house are Chinese but I think it is important
that is on the record.
Chairman: Thank you. I will ask Tony
Worthington to lead us on the Civil Society Challenge Fund.
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