Oral Answers to Questions

Gregory Campbell Excerpts
Wednesday 30th January 2013

(11 years, 9 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Alan Duncan Portrait Mr Duncan
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I congratulate my right hon. Friend on that ingenious plug for his report and on the idea of a development bank. We remain open-minded and non- dogmatic about what we should do with our budget. What matters is what works. As always, we will study his report in detail and reply formally to any ideas in it.

Gregory Campbell Portrait Mr Gregory Campbell (East Londonderry) (DUP)
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The Minister has indicated that we will meet the 0.7% commitment. Will he also assure us that when that money is deployed, we will ensure value for money and, most vitally, that corruption is addressed, particularly in parts of Africa?

Alan Duncan Portrait Mr Duncan
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I agree with the hon. Gentleman on all counts. Value for money and its proper evaluation are the principles by which we work every day. We focus a great deal on corruption, by which we mean the risk of fraud in the use of our funds and endemic corruption in the countries in which we work. To that end, we are publishing anti-corruption strategies for each of our bilateral countries, as recommended by the Independent Commission for Aid Impact.