James Cleverly – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by James Cleverly on 2016-10-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent engagement his Department has had with the Commonwealth Secretariat over the efficient and transparent expenditure of funds received from the public purse.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

Through regular attendance at meetings of the Commonwealth Secretariat’s Executive Committee (ExCo) and Board of Governors (of which we are a member), the UK is fully engaged to ensure that UK funds are allocated and spent in an efficient and transparent manner. ExCo meets three times a year to review papers, including the budget, which is presented to the Board of Governors at its annual meeting. The role of ExCo is to receive and review reports from the Secretariat on the operations of individual funds; oversee budgets and audit functions; make policy recommendations to the Board of Governors with respect to the individual funds; and make recommendations, as appropriate, on any matter referred to it by the Board of Governors.