Around 60% of U.K. government development adviser posts remain unfilled nearly five years after the axing of a separate aid department triggered an exodus of disillusioned staff members.
The failure to find replacements for scores of employees who quit rather than join the merged Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office was the fault of a freeze on external recruitment, according to FCDO officials who gave evidence to a Parliamentary inquiry Tuesday.
Nick Dyer, a senior civil servant, denied the staffing crisis was the result of a controversial “Brits only” policy at FCDO — and revealed the new Labour government has ended the Conservative-imposed freeze, with a drive to recruit 200 new staffers now underway.