CONFIDENTIAL
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London S.W.1
(MF 23/1)
DESPATCH
CIRCULAR
14 April, 1969.
Sir,
17
Development Aid to the Associated States and Dependent Territories after 31st March, 1970
I have the honour to address you on arrangements in substitution for those now made under the Colonial Development and Welfare Acts, which HMG have now decided should not be renewed next year. Those Acts provide that no scheme shall continue in force nor any loan be approved after 31st March 1970. This is therefore effectively the date of expiry of the Acts, although there may be disbursements from approved loans after that date up to 31st March 1973.
2. It therefore now becomes necessary to establish a procedure for providing development aid after these Acts expire. Heretofore it has been the practice to extend the operation of the Acts and to increase, so far as necessary, the financial limits incorporated in them. With the expiry of these Acts it will be possible to provide development aid, in the form of grant and/or loan, to the remaining dependent territories and to the Associated States, under the Overseas Aid Act 1966. This Act will therefore become the authority for such aid after 31st March 1970; and actual issues in any year will be provided, as now, under the authority of annual Votes. The change in legislative authority signifies no change in aid policy, and the Minister of Overseas Development will take an early opportunity to make a statement in Parliament to the effect that although the C.D. & W. Acts are being allowed to expire, HMG still regard the reasonable needs of the remaining dependencies as a first charge on the aid funds which they are able to make available.
3. Under the C.D. & W. Acts there was an accumulation of administrative procedures to govern the provision of development aid to dependencies and Associated States. The expiry of the Acts provides the opportunity to review the necessity for such procedures. Owing to the great demand for the available funds, all aid donors are obliged to call for information which may occasionally appear to be excessive. HMG will thus continue to need adequate information as the basis on which to enter into commitments to provide funds for development. The following procedures are based on those current in relation to independent countries, modified in certain respects to take account inter alia of the need to reduce the present administrative burden. Delays are liable to occur after an application for development funds has been received. This Despatch describes the kind of information required, with a view to reducing these delays. For these reasons I invite your comments on the proposed procedures, and if they appear likely to strain administration I will consider how they can be modified.
CONFIDENTI AL
1.
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.