Labour MP Dame Margaret Beckett blasts ‘secretive’ £1billion fund dishing out cash to conflict-hit countries

A SECRETIVE £1billion foreign aid “slush fund” is dishing out cash to conflict-hit countries with no accountability for spending taxpayers’ cash, a hard-hitting report reveals.

The powerful Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy said it was “impossible” to evaluate the work the fund was paying for.

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MPs and peers probing the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF) blamed its “opaque” operations.

And they slammed its lack of direction and oversight because there is no minister responsible for it.

The fund handed out cash to 97 programmes in more than 40 countries including Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia and Bahrain.

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But the committee said there were no details of how the fund works, how programmes for funding are chosen and who is responsible for them.

It said without further information “we cannot provide parliamentary accountability for taxpayers’ money spent via the CSSF”.

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Committee chair and Labour MP Dame Margaret Beckett said: “It is impossible for us to tell whether the fund is meeting the Government’s goals or having the intended impact on the ground.

“This is because Government failed to provide sufficient evidence for the committee to carry out any evaluation.”

The CSSF was set up to in 2015 to fund projects that prevent conflict, stabilise countries or regions, and respond to international crises.

Charity Reprieve said the lack of accountability meant the fund could be paying towards countries with poor human rights records.

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Director Maya Foa said: “The committee is right to raise serious concerns over the secrecy surrounding the CSSF.

“This lack of oversight is deeply worrying, given the risk of complicity in terrible abuses - including torture and the death penalty - in countries like Bahrain and Ethiopia.

“Such substantial, high-risk security assistance surely deserves proper scrutiny by MPs, and by the public.”

The committee said the fund should be placed under Cabinet Office control, with a minister held politically accountable.

And MPs and peers demanded the Government make the fund more transparent by publishing a “detailed” annual report showing spending and performance.