Statement in response to DFID WMS

Statement

We welcome the fact that DFID has now decided to close down TradeMark Southern Africa (TMSA).

ICAI first alerted DFID to our very grave concerns in May 2013. In July, ICAI sent DFID our draft report which gave the programme a ‘Red’ assessment and recommended that DFID should take immediate action.

As a result of our original alert, DFID carried out a Management Assurance Review led by the Internal Audit Department. This verified our concerns but its conclusions stated that a number of our findings were overstated and that there were significant elements of good practice undertaken within the programme.

DFID Southern Africa and TMSA started to implement changes in response to our concerns and presented us with new evidence relating to TMSA. We decided, therefore, that it was necessary for us to carry out a follow-up review in order to give a complete assessment of this programme in our report. This included a return visit to DFID Southern Africa.

Our further work confirmed our conclusion that this programme merited our first ‘Red’ assessment.

Our report will be published on 6 December 2013.