The Independent: Review launched into Commonwealth Development Corporation Expenses

Government review of CDC expenses 'launched'. Diverts attention from the real issue. This is the appalling circumstances of the privatisation of the CDC's international development arm '(Actis') under Blair's watch. An 'independent board' consisting of CDC managers (then govt employees) approved the privatisation and those same managers became instant millionaires, not least through selling off CDC investments taxed at low CGT rates. McKinsey devised a bonus scheme for the directors of Actis based not on 'development' but on attracting capital and returns on investment. Consequently it invests less in agriculture and more in mobile phones and shopping centres which (a) could attract private money anyway and (b) strips out third-world wealth and diverts it to multinationals' bottom lines.