tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17839575.post113101014838057996..comments2024-03-17T23:50:03.863+08:00Comments on Government and Taxes: Foreign Aid 2: Circuitous and Leaky ProcessBienvenido Oplas Jrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07799756132761366267noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17839575.post-1131163653300308192005-11-05T12:07:00.000+08:002005-11-05T12:07:00.000+08:00Hey Nonoy,Good post.I met a Japanese academic who...Hey Nonoy,<BR/><BR/>Good post.<BR/><BR/>I met a Japanese academic who works for the Japanese government as a consultant auditing their ODA-funded projects in the Philippines. He told me that 40% of the projects are failures because of fraud, corruption and sometimes just bad planning. Afterall, it is usually the receiving country's officials who decided what projects to recruit donations for, and these may not always be the objectively the best projects for the Philippines, say. They may just be the best projects for the officials in question.<BR/><BR/>The biggest problem with these ODA projects is that are top-down with out-of-touch national bureaucrats in one country conferring with out-of-touch national bureaucrats in another country and deciding what a third group, say the locals in Zambalese, need.<BR/><BR/>For a better system we should take a clue from the fact that the US donates more money to devoloping countries through private organizations -- say the Red Cross -- then its government donates in tax money to other governments. There should be dollar-for-dollar tax credits for charitable donations for all citizens to non-profit organizations helping people around the world. These credits would be paid for by a dollar for dollar deduction in ODA grants from the tax-payers country. In other worlds, if Americans donate 10 million dollars directly to small NPOs in developing countries, the American ODA will be reduced by $10 million.<BR/><BR/>Cheers,<BR/>Bruce in IloiloAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com