Wasted charity

London

Only about 20 percent of all international aid actually goes to the people it is meant to help, two major aid agencies said this week. Oxfam and Action Aid, both based in the U.K., said that bureaucratic costs ate up most of the money donated by Western governments. Much of the money actually ends up back in the rich donor nations, because the aid agencies are required to buy products and services from donor-country companies at inflated prices. The U.S. and Italy are the worst offenders, the groups said, effectively taking back 70 percent of the aid they supposedly donate.

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