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COMMITMENTS
10.
The United Kingdom aid programme is controlled on a disbursement basis and commitments are entered into and discharged at a rate intended to give rise to the approved level of disbursments. The progress and forecasts of dis- bursements are reviewed regularly during the course of each financial year and if necessary steps are taken to control the discharge of commitments to achieve
the fullest possible disbursement of the approved programme.
11. Rates
of disbursement depend on many factors some of which are the responsibility of the recipient country and are therefore outside the control of those who
administer the United Kingdom aid programme. Fluctuations in levels of disbursement
from year to year do not therefore necessarily reflect changes of United Kingdom
policy.
PROSPECTS FOR 1977 ONWARDS
12. The planned level of the aid programme for the 1977-78 financial year is $1126m
(£623.1m) net and $1227m (£679.0m) gross. In spite of the reductions in previously planned levels the aid programme is planned to increase by 6.1% between
1977-78 and 1978-79, subject to revision in the annual expenditure survey. Because
the United Kingdom does not publish forecasts of gross national product, it
cannot make projections of performance against the United Nations target.
13.The annual White Paper on Public Expenditure indicate planned levels for the
net aid programme over a five year period as part of the planning of the public
expenditure programme as a whole. The planning figures are on a constant price
basis and are rolled forward each year by revaluation based on estimated price
changes in the year concerned for the economic categories relevant to the programme.
The United Kingdom system, therefore, has a built in adjustment for price changes
to the forward planning figures. The figures themselves are of course subject
to changes in policy. The forward planning figures for 1979-80 and 1980-81 do
not yet take account of the development which led to the reductions in planned
public expenditure announced in December 1976. They will be reviewed in the next
annual expenditure survey. It is hoped that it will be possible to restore the aid programme to, at least, the previously planned levels as soon as circumstances
permit.
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.