| | In ROAPE 104/05 we carried the following (abridged) 'stop press' item.
The UK's Department for International Development (DfID) is spending UK aid money on a public relations campaign to pursue a privatisation agenda in Sierra Leone. Documents obtained by development campaigners the World Development Movement (WDM) show that in June of this year DfID advertised for an 'international consultancy' firm to both advise the Sierra Leonean government on privatising state enterprises, including water, and to run a communications campaign to promote privatisation. Six of the eight short-listed companies are British; they include Adam Smith International and PriceWaterhouseCoopers; both companies have previously been contracted by DfID to promote privatisation in developing countries. So concerned are WDM about the government's latest move that they have written to DfID asking a series of specific questions about the contract and querying its legality.
In response to the WDM press release of 30 August 2005, the UK's Department for International Development (DfID) has issued its response. WDM responds to this statement, point by point. |
