Transparency and openness have fallen at FCDO, says UK aid watchdog

The transparency and openness of the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office have declined in its dealings with the Independent Commission for Aid Impact, according to the U.K. watchdog.

ICAI, a public body that monitors development spending, said in a new report that interacting with FCDO has been “challenging” at times — a contrast to its more open dealings with the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy and the CDC Group.

Development experts said the revelation is “damning,” and they expressed significant concern about the precedent it sets for aid effectiveness and accountability to taxpayers.

The watchdog’s report said that “overall there has been a reduction in transparency and openness in FCDO’s engagement with the ICAI follow-up compared to previous years.”

The report outlines the government’s progress on recommendations that ICAI made in three reviews published from 2019 to 2020. The government’s response was rated “inadequate” with regard to the reviews titled “How UK Aid Learns,” “The Changing Nature of UK Aid in Ghana,” and “The UK’s Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative.”

ICAI found it “more difficult to get access to relevant documentation and arrange interviews with the right people for the follow-up.” Responses to requests that ICAI made were “sometimes slow and information needed in order to assess progress on our recommendations was often not forthcoming.”

ICAI cited the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 merger of the Department for International Development and Foreign & Commonwealth Office, leading to the creation of FCDO, as key reasons for the disruption. “It is to be hoped that this is a temporary situation,” the report said.

FCDO has faced widespread criticism for what detractors say is a lack of transparency. While much of this has come from outsiders observing the government’s aid cuts and strategy formulation, ICAI is able to access privileged information and meetings that others cannot.

“FCDO’s lack of progress [in] remedying shortfalls identified by its own UK aid watchdog is very concerning,” said a statement from Simon Starling, director of policy, advocacy, and research at Bond, the U.K. network for NGOs. “It appears the merger of the FCO and DFID has contributed to UK aid regressing in terms of quality, transparency and openness.”

Melissa Leach, director at the Institute of Development Studies, said it is “damning that the government’s responses to all three reviews have been rated by ICAI as inadequate.” Leach added that the “lack of transparency and cooperation from FCDO” is “extremely concerning and mirrors the opaque approach the FCDO has taken in applying the devastating U.K. aid cuts.”

An FCDO spokesperson said in a statement that the department was committed to “full transparency.”

“We have provided documents and information to ICAI as part of their follow up review and continue to focus on maintaining spending transparency," the spokesperson added.

The statement also said “throughout the pandemic [FCDO] have continued to publish our aid spending for each project online so anyone can see it.” But detailed spending plans for 2021 are still unavailable, and Devex has been told by multiple sources that FCDO’s data is substandard.  

Update, June 23, 2021: This article was updated to include a response from the FCDO.