Mark Lowcock, permanent secretary of the Department for International Development (DfID), yesterday promised to improve his department’s anti-corruption efforts following a critical report from the Independent Commission on Aid Impact (ICAI).

Speaking before the Commons’ International Development Committee, Lowcock said DfID has accepted all of ICAI’s recommendations on anti-corruption: “They are sensible recommendations that will improve our impact and effectiveness.”

ICAI recommended that the department put in place strategies for safeguarding resources in high-risk countries, and Lowcock said he will supervise the work, ensuring that the first batch of strategies are published in the middle of next year.

The department is also reorganising to better focus on the issue and “hundreds and hundreds of people will have their jobs changed across the organisation”, he added.

Lowcock said that DfID will report on how it is meeting ICAI’s recommendations on a quarterly basis. However, he warned that efforts to improve value for money will take time.

“It’s going to be a little while before we achieve our own objectives or satisfy you and ICAI,” he told the committee.

He added that part of the problem is that the department must run some of its operations through international agencies. “We are struggling to win, at the level of governing boards of agencies, a substantial level of support for our value for money agenda,” he said. “We are a bit too much of a lone voice on this issue at the moment.”

Read an article by Mark Lowcock here

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