Update to Global Justice Now report, The privatisation of UK aid: How Adam Smith International is profiting from the aid budget

Type: Reports
Date: 13 November 2017
Campaigns: Aid

ASI profits continue to grow

Latest accounts from Adam Smith International¹ show the company’s profit margins continue to grow despite it having been centre of a scandal in which it was accused of exploiting documents leaked from DFID and attempting to falsify evidence to a parliamentary enquiry. The Commons international development committee said the company’s behaviour was “deplorable” and “entirely inappropriate.”² As a consequence the company had any new contracts frozen.

ASI continues to be one of DFID’s biggest suppliers

Between 2012 – 2017, DFID issued £462.3m worth of contracts to ASI.³ While no new contracts have been signed since March 2017, ASI continues to receive huge sums from existing contracts, some of which have since been extended. ASI also gets contracts from other departments such as FCO which has awarded ASI £12.1m from the aid budget between April and September 2017 alone.⁴

 

¹ASI Financial Statements for the year ending December 2016

²Matthew Weaver and Ben Quinn ‘UK aid bosses quit in crackdown on profiteering’ 2nd March 2017