Just over a month before Britain will make a doubling of aid a centrepiece of the Gleneagles summit, the charity ActionAid said the bulk of the money currently allocated was wasted, misdirected or recycled within rich countries.
It found that 61% of aid flows were "phantom" rather than "real" - rising to almost 90% in the case of France and the United States....
The G7 countries - Britain, the US, Germany, Italy, France, Canada and Japan - spent only 0.07% of national income on real aid and would need a tenfold increase to hit the UN target, ActionAid said....
Of US aid, 86 cents in the dollar is phantom, largely because it is tied to the purchase of American goods and services. George Bush's Aids drugs plan excludes cheaper, generic drugs, so giving lucrative contracts to US pharmaceutical companies but treating fewer patients