EIGHTH REPORT
The International Development Committee has agreed
to the following Report:—
DEPARTMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT:
2000 DEPARTMENTAL REPORT
Introduction
1. Departmental Reports are the main annual publication
in which the Department for International Development (DFID) explains
its policies, expenditure patterns and performance to Parliament.
It is therefore important that they are clear and comprehensive
in their coverage of the work of the Department. The Committee
conducted inquiries on the Departmental Reports produced by DFID
in 1998 and 1999,[1]
making recommendations on the format and content of the Departmental
Report as well as considering various aspects of the Department's
activity.
2. DFID's 2000 Departmental Report represents
a further significant improvement in DFID's accountability to
Parliament. It gives the reader an excellent overview of the policy
priorities of the Department, placed clearly in the context of
the year covered by the Report. In particular we welcome its analysis
of recent policy developments, current debates and important events,
and the increased level of detail about the Department's activities
over the past year and its plans for future years.
3. In considering the Departmental Report, we cannot
consider in detail every aspect of DFID's recent work or its plans
for the next two years. We have therefore identified four main
areas on which to concentrate our discussions:
(a) DFID's bilateral
expenditure plans;
(b) DFID's targets and performance measurement;
(c) the Civil Society Challenge Fund; and
(d) DFID's use of consultants.
4. We heard oral evidence from Sir John Vereker KCB,
Permanent Secretary; Barrie Ireton, Director General (Programmes);
and Peter Freeman, Principal Finance Officer, DFID. We received
written evidence from ActionAid, BOND, British Consultants' Bureau,
International Family Health, Marie Stopes International, Seacas
(UK) Ltd, War on Want, and the World Wide Fund for Nature. All
this evidence has been most useful to our discussions, and we
are grateful to those who provided it.
5. We visited DFID's office at Abercrombie House
in East Kilbride on 15 June to hear evidence on DFID's contracting
procedures and the Civil Society Challenge Fund, both of which
are managed from East Kilbride, and to meet DFID officials involved
in the procurement process and DFID's Civil Society Department.
We heard oral evidence in East Kilbride from Peter Freeman, Principal
Finance Officer; Frank Black, Head, and Patricia Scotland, Programme
Adviser, Civil Society Department; John Kelly, Head of Contracts
Branch, and Glynis Davies, Head of Policy and Procedures Department,
Procurement Department; and Dr Ken Grant, Director, Institute
for Health Sector Development (IHSD), a DFID Resource Centre.
This was our first visit to Abercrombie House, where over a third
of DFID's staff in the UK are based. We were grateful for the
warm welcome we received, and the opportunity to meet staff. We
welcome the fact that such a significant proportion of DFID's
staff are based in Scotland.
6. We also publish with this Report evidence taken
earlier this Session from DFID officials responsible for the implementation
of resource accounting and budgeting in the Department. We heard
from Graham Stegmann, (then) Principal Finance Officer, and Colin
Raynor, Head of Finance Department, on progress made in the implementation
of the new systems. During the course of the Session we have received
supplementary written evidence from the Department informing us
of further progress in the implementation of the new budgeting
and accounting system, which is also published with this Report.
We thank DFID for providing us with this information.
1 See Fifth Report from the Committee, Session 1997-98,
Department for International Development: 1998 Departmental Report
(HC 711), and Fifth Report from the Committee, Session 1998-99,
Department for International Development: 1999 Departmental Report
(HC 567). Back
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