*
https://heatst.com/entertainment/after-uproar-britain-stops-paying-for-ethiopian-spice-girls-with-taxpayer-funds/
<
https://heatst.com/entertainment/after-uproar-britain-stops-paying-for-ethiopian-spice-girls-with-taxpayer-funds/>*
After Uproar, Britain Stops Paying for Ethiopian ‘Spice Girls’ With
Taxpayer Funds
Jamie Wiseman/REX/Shutterstock
Yegna
By Ian Miles Cheong
|4:13 pm, January 7, 2017
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Britain will no longer subsidize Ethiopia’s version of the “Spice Girls”
after a public uproar over the millions of pounds that had already been
pumped into the African girl band.
Yegna, the Ethiopian pop group, has already received four million British
pounds as part of a program to empower African women. But after Britain’s
Daily Mail excoriated the spending
<
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4095882/Britain-scraps-5million-foreign-aid-Ethiopia-s-Spice-Girls-Mail-revealed-blood-boiling-waste-taxpayers-money.html?ito=social-twitter_dailymailUK#ixzz4V45iukxN>
as
needlessly wasteful, government officials pulled any further funding from
the free-spirited girl band.
The funding of Yegna was part of a £38.9 million project called Girl
Effect, of which £27.1 million had been spent by the end of 2015. A further
£11.8 million was to be provided until 2018. Yegna itself had been entitled
to receive another £5.2 million. The pop group received the money through a
contract to develop their “media branded platform,” which includes radio
drama and music.
<
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fheatst.com%2F&media=http%3A%2F%2Fheatst.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2017%2F01%2Fyegna.jpeg&description=>
After the Daily Mail report
<
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4046308/Britain-gives-5-million-Ethiopian-Spice-Girls-new-talk-4-million-ve-handed-them.html>
thrust
the spending into the public spotlight, some British members of Parliament
had called the program a “blood boiling” waste of funds.
When UK International Development Secretary Priti Patel’s eventually said
she was axing the funding, her decision was met with widespread approval
from MPs.
“We have taken the decision to end our partnership following a review of
the program,” said Patel’s office in a statement.
“Empowering women and girls around the world remains a priority, but we
judge there are more effective ways to invest UK aid and to deliver even
better results for the world’s poorest and value for taxpayers’ money.”
Any part of £5.2m that has not yet been spent will not be paid out to Yegna.
Patel previously defended Yegna, saying that the program was “supporting
women in some very, very substantial issues relating to their well-being,
their rights, all the things that matter and should matter when it comes to
living in a civilized society,” but said that the program was under review
due to concerns that it wasn’t delivering UK taxpayers value for money.
“This is a victory for the UK taxpayer and common sense by Priti Patel in
making sure that British money is not squandered,” said Tory MP Andrew
Rosindell following Patel’s decision. His words were echoed by Tory MP
David Nuttall, who added that the government must remain vigilant that
taxpayer money is not squandered any further.
“Charity starts at home and while taxpayers understand money needs to be
spent on international aid for famine and the neediest parts of the world,
this a good example of where money was not being spent in this way,” he
said.
The UK government is legally bound to spend £12 billion per year to meet
international standards of spending 0.7% of the national income on foreign
aid. Per the Daily Mail report
<
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4046308/Britain-gives-5-million-Ethiopian-Spice-Girls-new-talk-4-million-ve-handed-them.html>,
much of that money has been put in trust funds run by the World Bank,
remaining unspent and subject to hefty administrative fees.
In addition to the “Ethiopian Spice Girls,” the Daily Mail report
highlighted a several other questionable projects, including one in
Pakistan, where £1 billion in tax money has been dispersed in cash handouts
to Pakistani citizens despite the strong potential for fraud.
*Ian Miles Cheong is a journalist and outspoken game critic. You can reach
him through social media at _at_stillgray on Twitter
<
http://twitter.com/stillgray> and on Facebook
<
https://www.facebook.com/IanMilesCheong>.*
Received on Mon Jan 09 2017 - 13:57:31 EST
