London | Wednesday
BRITAIN’S International Development Secretary Clare Short delayed a 10-million-pound ($14-million dollar, 16-million euro) aid payment to Tanzania over its controversial decision to buy an air traffic control system, a British daily said on Wednesday.
The Department for International Development (DfID) confirmed the payment had been withheld pending a report into whether the African state had breached its commitments to alleviate poverty through its acquisition of the 28-million pound system.
The decision to grant British aerospace giant BAE Systems an export license to sell the system to one of the world’s poorest countries provoked a fierce row last December, with both Short and Finance Minister Gordon Brown opposing the sale.
Critics of the deal argued that Tanzania could have acquired a perfectly adequate civil system for a quarter of the price.
They said that it was wrong for a country as poor as Tanzania to be spending so much money on defence systems when it was receiving international aid to feed its own people.
Short strongly denied that her decision to delay the 10-million pounds of aid was an attempt to reopen the argument on the award of the original export licence.
“There is no cabinet rift. The export licence has been granted,” she said in a statement.
“The decision to delay the release of budgetary support pending a review of Tanzania’s air traffic control system was based on Tanzania’s commitment to poverty reduction.” – AFP