Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent independent audit there has been of the effectiveness of her Department's disbursement of services.

The National Audit Office, the principal state audit body in the United Kingdom, provides independent external audit of DFID’s spending, including carrying out value for money and other effectiveness reviews. DFID’s Annual Report and Accounts are also subject to audit by the National Audit Office. The Comptroller and Auditor General signed DFID’s 2014–15 Annual Report and Accounts on 9 July 2015 and issued an unqualified audit opinion. Rigorous independent scrutiny of the effectiveness of DFID’s work is also provided by the Independent Commission on Aid Impact which reports to the International Development Select Committee in Parliament.

DFID’s internal audit department provides assurance over governance, risk management and control systems through a programme of audits which cover DFID processes, departments and projects. In 2014-15 the Secretary of State significantly scaled up internal audit and counter fraud resources to strengthen internal capacity and skills, increase the depth and breadth of assurance coverage, and ensure that all DFID country offices are audited at least every other year. At a programme level, all organisations which receive funding from DFID are required to provide evidence about the use of funds, including providing independently audited financial statements to our programme managers.