Network of Government Operated Non Governmental Organisations divert £1.1bn for political indoctrination.
Fake Aid - How foreign aid is being used to support the self-serving political activities of NGOs. A highly detailed and scathing report by the IPN (International Policy Network), an independent think tank has now exposed this massive misuse of taxpayers funds.
The Myanmar Women’s Affairs Federation is a Gongo. So is Nashi, a Russian youth group, and the Sudanese Human Rights Organization. Saudi Arabia’s International Islamic Relief Organization is also a gongo, as is Chongryon, the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan. Gongos are everywhere, in China, Cuba, France, Tunisia, and even the United Kingdom.
Gongos are government-operated non-governmental organizations. Behind this contradictory and almost laughable tongue twister lies an important and growing global trend that deserves more scrutiny, as the UK government increases the funding and control of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) stealthily.
Some gongos are benign, others irrelevant. But many, including those mentioned above, are dangerous. Some act as the thuggish arm of repressive governments. Others use the practices of democracy to subtly undermine democracy at home as is the case with the DfID funding of Gongo's in the UK. Abroad, the gongos lobby the United Nations, OECD and other international institutions, often posing as representatives of citizen groups with lofty aims when, in fact, they are nothing but agents of the governments that fund them. Gongos are embedded deep into society and are used to advance ideological interests.
In the UK the government have set up a network of Gongos and Fake Charities under the guise of the DfID (Department for International Development) which are used almost entirely at taxpayers expense to politically indoctrinate children, lobby governments (both at home and abroad) and promote government ideological policy through bans and forced changes to lifestyle choices.
The Libertarian Party has long highlighted the use of Fake Charities, ostensibly charitable organisations who lobby government on behalf of concerned citizens groups, which are majority funded by government, such as ASH and Alcohol Concern to name but two, but these revelations with regards to NGO's and Gongos is a stunning misuse of funds for political indoctrination. What is even more concerning is that the Conservative Party have already announced that they intend to increase the funding further.
A highly detailed and scathing report by the IPN (International Policy Network), an independent think tank has now exposed this massive misuse of taxpayers funds, diverting massive financial support to Unions and in particular the National Union of Teachers for political indoctrination of our children. 87 PER CENT of funded programmes are aimed at kids or students.
What it shows is effectively a huge network of organisations laundering taxpayers money for political purposes. Partnership Programme Arrangements (PPA's) transfer hundreds of millions of pounds to mainly hand-picked NGOs in unrestricted funds. This includes groups like ActionAid who campaign explicitly against free trade.
What we find absolutely incredulous however, is that the Conservative party not only know about this abuse of taxpayers funds, but intend to increase it when they take power. Under the banner of One World Conservatism, the Conservative Policy Green Paper No.11 begins "Our vision for international development, as in other areas of policy, is to achieve progressive aims through Conservative means". In translation that means more of the same with a slightly different propaganda slant.
The conservative document goes on: “We will retain the present system of Partnership Programme Agreements (PPAs) through which DFID supports leading NGOs and development organisations. As far as possible we will link funding increases to evidence of effectiveness and results, rewarding good performance and ensuring our aid achieves the most it possibly can.” P. 24 Conservative Party. 2009. One World Conservatism: A Conservative Agenda for International Development.
Ian Parker-Joseph, Libertarian Party leader said: "The use of taxpayer funds in this way is both immoral and bordering on the illegal. Under no circumstances will a Libertarian government allow taxpayers to fund any organisation that is using part or all of its funding for political purposes or for political lobbying, and we would call on all other political parties to issue such an undertaking. To see the Conservative Party add its approval to these underhand schemes is disappointing, although not unexpected given the current progressive direction of the conservative party under Cameron".
The IPN press release highlights the following:
Recipients of this money include trade unions and other partisan political organisations in the UK. Examples include:
£1.2 million given to the Trades Union Congress (TUC) since 2003 for activities including: lobbying, hiring new staff and an “international buffet and wine” event to celebrate “International Women’s Day” in the UK. DfID also paid the TUC to hold lessons in how to apply for DfID funds.
£300,000 to the National Union of Teachers (NUT) to “enable them [teachers] to become global agents of change”.
The creation of fake NGOs such as “Connections for Development” (CfD), supposedly a forum for black and ethnic minorities to engage “on issues relating to international development.” DfID created and is the only donor to CfD, providing it with £600,000 in its first two years, yet an independent review questioned “the purpose of the organisation.”
£10 million spent flying poor Brits to poor countries to work for free.
IPN’s Julian Harris, one of the report’s authors, said “DfID often hand-picks the largest recipients, such as trade unions, behind closed doors. This smacks of cronyism.”
The report highlights the waste of DfID funds on political campaigning while a child dies every 30 seconds from malaria in poor countries.
“The money DfID is wasting in this year alone could in principle treat 230 million people suffering from malaria,” concluded Harris.
£1.2 million given to the Trades Union Congress (TUC) since 2003 for activities including: lobbying, hiring new staff and an “international buffet and wine” event to celebrate “International Women’s Day” in the UK. DfID also paid the TUC to hold lessons in how to apply for DfID funds.
£300,000 to the National Union of Teachers (NUT) to “enable them [teachers] to become global agents of change”.
The creation of fake NGOs such as “Connections for Development” (CfD), supposedly a forum for black and ethnic minorities to engage “on issues relating to international development.” DfID created and is the only donor to CfD, providing it with £600,000 in its first two years, yet an independent review questioned “the purpose of the organisation.”
£10 million spent flying poor Brits to poor countries to work for free.
IPN’s Julian Harris, one of the report’s authors, said “DfID often hand-picks the largest recipients, such as trade unions, behind closed doors. This smacks of cronyism.”
The report highlights the waste of DfID funds on political campaigning while a child dies every 30 seconds from malaria in poor countries.
“The money DfID is wasting in this year alone could in principle treat 230 million people suffering from malaria,” concluded Harris.
Please read the detailed report here.
The Libertarian Party Press Release can be read here.
3 comments:
I note the Conservatives say, "...we will link funding increases to evidence of effectiveness & results, rewarding good performance..."
This could easily be shifted to punishing poor performance, which itself could be redefined with a more right-wing bias, so perhaps they will get tough with these profligate money-wasters after all.
I got the e mail this morning too, was going to blog about it but no point now.
Surely they are Government Orafices Not Actually Development, or GONADs for short.
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