‘Severe' risk to aid work from controversial merger, UK government admits

The United Kingdom government has acknowledged a “severe” risk that international development skills and expertise are being lost, more than three years after it axed its separate aid department.

The admission is disclosed in a public spending watchdog’s report into the 2020 creation of the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, which also criticizes a failure to properly assess the costs and benefits of the controversial merger.

The study warns that internal “trust in the organisation” is still being damaged by a failure to align “pay and allowances” of staff who worked at the former Department for International Development and at FCDO.

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