Now, UK cuts funding for Commonwealth Secretariat

Friday, 11 October 2013 03:21 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

British newspaper notes top C’wealth members are unhappy with Secretary General Sharm Days after Canada vowed to review its funding for the Commonwealth, the crisis in the 53 member grouping intensified yesterday with reports emerging that the British Government had also pulled funding for the organisation over concerns about its leadership and performance. Britain is the Commonwealth’s largest funder with £ 16 million per year, with Canada coming in second with a £ 10 million annual contribution.

The UK’s Daily Telegraph reported that with 52 of the organisation’s 53 members prepared to defy human rights protests by gathering in Sri Lanka, concerns over its direction have seen major donors scale back contributions to its budget. “Whitehall has imposed cuts of £ 3 million over two years from its grant to the Commonwealth Secretariat. Stephen Harper, the Canadian Prime Minister, provoked fears of a funding crisis this week by warning that Ottawa was looking at the scale of its own ‘financing’,” the Telegraph reported. The newspaper quotes a senior former official at the Commonwealth Secretariat, which is based at Marlborough House on Pall Mall, who said Commonwealth Members were increasingly unhappy with Kamalesh Sharma, the Secretary General. “William Hague has recently conceded to critics of the Commonwealth leadership that a change would be desirable,” the source said. “It is a pity but Mr. Sharma is the wrong man for the job. The Commonwealth has a big job to do helping to improve official work in its member states but Mr. Sharma is not interested.” A spokesman for Mr. Sharma refused to return calls for comment on criticism of its Secretariat from its Members,” the Daily Telegraph report states. The UK based newspaper reported sources as saying Whitehall had imposed annual cuts of £ 1.5 million from a portion of the grant it gives the Commonwealth to spend on improving government standards in its member states.