U.K.’s International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell has called for a review of a government sponsored business aid company, the Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC), after the Daily Mail exposed extravagant expenses claimed by CDC executives.
Chief executive Richard Laing claimed 7,414 pounds (US$11,545) in overhead last year, including 1,557 pounds (US$2,424) in unspecified taxi fares in London.
He was also found to have salary and bonuses of 970,000 pounds (US$1.5 million).
According to facts gained through the Freedom of Information Act, The Daily Mail wrote that executive Anubha Shrivastava claimed 530 pounds ($825) for one night at the Four Seasons hotel in Hong Kong, and 661.48 pounds for a two-night stay at the five-star Portman Ritz Carlton in Shanghai.
There was also a dinner for CDC nonexecutive directors at the Michelin-starred L'Autre Pied restaurant that cost 700 pounds and a taxi ride from Brussels to Paris costing 336.54 pounds.
Previously called the Colonial Development Corporation, CDC has been publicly traded for 60 years.
“Our mission is to foster growth in sustainable businesses, helping to raise living standards in developing countries,” it says in sizable caps on the front page of its website.
The majority of CDC activity is via Actis, a private equity fund founded in July 2004 to help businesses in emerging markets: Africa, China, Latin America, South Asia, and Southeast Asia.
It was created from CDC and sold to CDC’s management for 373,000 pounds (US$575,000) although it is now estimated to worth millions.
In the company’s “Actis In Review 2010,” the customers Actis wishes to serve are shown not to be in the same field as those targeted by charities or business ventures like Fairtrade. Their end clients are described as, among others, as:
“A businessman in a province of China on the road visiting potential clients, knowing he needs to keep his overhead low, but able to stay somewhere comfortable, with a proper Internet connection.
“A mother and daughter shopping in Accra, stopping to grab a pizza in the mall, and at the last minute, catching a movie; laughing over their popcorn as the story unfolds in the dark.”
John Hilary, of War On Want, is quoted by the Daily Mail as saying, “CDC has long abandoned any interest in poverty reduction. CDC is focused instead on wealth creation for the affluent, including its own chief. This is a travesty of its original mandate.”
CDC’s spokeswoman told the Daily Mail, “Our investment team spend a huge amount of the year traveling, and we do not think it is unreasonable at all that they should stay in a decent hotel; in a way that allows them to do their work properly.”
Chief executive Richard Laing claimed 7,414 pounds (US$11,545) in overhead last year, including 1,557 pounds (US$2,424) in unspecified taxi fares in London.
He was also found to have salary and bonuses of 970,000 pounds (US$1.5 million).
According to facts gained through the Freedom of Information Act, The Daily Mail wrote that executive Anubha Shrivastava claimed 530 pounds ($825) for one night at the Four Seasons hotel in Hong Kong, and 661.48 pounds for a two-night stay at the five-star Portman Ritz Carlton in Shanghai.
There was also a dinner for CDC nonexecutive directors at the Michelin-starred L'Autre Pied restaurant that cost 700 pounds and a taxi ride from Brussels to Paris costing 336.54 pounds.
Previously called the Colonial Development Corporation, CDC has been publicly traded for 60 years.
“Our mission is to foster growth in sustainable businesses, helping to raise living standards in developing countries,” it says in sizable caps on the front page of its website.
The majority of CDC activity is via Actis, a private equity fund founded in July 2004 to help businesses in emerging markets: Africa, China, Latin America, South Asia, and Southeast Asia.
It was created from CDC and sold to CDC’s management for 373,000 pounds (US$575,000) although it is now estimated to worth millions.
In the company’s “Actis In Review 2010,” the customers Actis wishes to serve are shown not to be in the same field as those targeted by charities or business ventures like Fairtrade. Their end clients are described as, among others, as:
“A businessman in a province of China on the road visiting potential clients, knowing he needs to keep his overhead low, but able to stay somewhere comfortable, with a proper Internet connection.
“A mother and daughter shopping in Accra, stopping to grab a pizza in the mall, and at the last minute, catching a movie; laughing over their popcorn as the story unfolds in the dark.”
John Hilary, of War On Want, is quoted by the Daily Mail as saying, “CDC has long abandoned any interest in poverty reduction. CDC is focused instead on wealth creation for the affluent, including its own chief. This is a travesty of its original mandate.”
CDC’s spokeswoman told the Daily Mail, “Our investment team spend a huge amount of the year traveling, and we do not think it is unreasonable at all that they should stay in a decent hotel; in a way that allows them to do their work properly.”
