Adam Smith International

Adam Smith International (ASI) is the consulting arm of the conservative think tank, the Adam Smith Institute.

On its website ASI calls itself "a leading independent international development consultancy, based in London with a registered office in Delhi and major project offices located in developing and transitional countries worldwide."

It says its aim is to apply its professional and consulting skills "towards improving the quality of life for the citizens of countries facing economic, political and social change or uncertainty".

It adds that its core expertise lies in the fields of government and enterprise/utility reform and in a range of closely related critical support areas, notably policy communications and labour reform. We are developing our expertise in the education and social development fields to build upon our existing track record in these sectors.

ASI says it

has an unrivalled record of delivering results in complex and highly political environments on behalf of donors including DFID and the FCO. For example, we mobilised at short notice to set up from scratch a Prime Minister's Office and Cabinet Office in Iraq and have been providing public administration reform assistance ever since. In Afghanistan we are developing and supporting counter narcotics institutions at both central and provincial levels. In Palestine we established the new Prime Minister's Office and Cabinet Office and now run DFID's long-term programme of public administration reform within the Palestinian Authority, as well as having run the unit supporting Palestinian negotiators on behalf of 5 bilateral donors since 1999. In Liberia we are managing a civil service reform programme for DFID and in Sierra Leone are taking executive control of the Ministry of Mineral Resources, seeking to turn it into an effective revenue-generating agency.

Controversies/issues

A failed water privatisation deal in Tanzania has caused criticism as "many western companies are accused of profiting from the poor and raising prices above what they can afford". In this particular case, Adam Smith International, sister organisation of the free market UK thinktank Adam Smith Institute, is accused of having spent the money provided by the Department for International Development in order to provide advice to the Tanzanian government for a £250,000 video clip promoting privatisation.

The British government is accused of being at least partly responsible for the failure of this project. "The Department for International Development (...) handed £273,000 of British taxpayers' aid money to British consultancy firm Adam Smith International for glossy public relations materials, including the pop song, to persuade a sceptical public of the benefits of the sell-off."

ASI projects and the DFID

Projects ASI has worked on include:

• A project for the World Bank on "a review of Rwanda’s essential utilities (roads, telecoms, water, gas, electricity, etc.), an assessment of the current levels of access to these utilities and a series of recommendations for involving the private sector to increase the efficiency of their delivery."
• Advising the government of Rwanda on the privatisation of the Pfunda tea factory which was sold to a UK based tea trading company, LAB International.
• In the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh in 1998, ASI established "a semi-autonomous body known as the Implementation Secretariat (IS)" which "was given the responsibility of reviewing the status of 87 state-owned enterprises and cooperative societies." On its website, ASI states that "to date, more than fifty enterprises and cooperatives have been privatised, disinvested, closed or restructured, creating over US$110m of revenue for the Government of Andhra Pradesh and making fiscal savings of over $300m."
• In Ghana since 1999, ASI has been working on a project funded by the UK’s Department for International Development (DfID) DFID to develop proposals on water supply issues. DfID asked ASI has to help a government regulatory body to develop a pro-poor regulatory social policy that will result in universal access to affordable water.
• In January 2004, ASI hosted a major international conference in Dhaka, Bangladesh, with assistance once more from DfID, promoting its preferred free trade policies including canvassing a South Asia Free Trade Area (SAFTA) and the repeal of the "highly restrictive" Multi-Fibre Arrangement on textiles.
• In Iraq, with DfID funding, ASI is working on a project to "assist three vital Iraqi ministries (Finance; Planning & Development Coordination; Municipalities & Public Works) in building emergency capacity for the immediate provision of vital services. ASI is involved in laying the foundations for long-term reform".

Think Tank's Water Bank Rankles

DfID paid ASI "more than £500,000 to provide advice to the Tanzanian government," with over half that amount spent on a video extolling the benefits of water privatisation, the Guardian reported in May 2005. "Our old industries are dry like crops and privatisation brings the rain," was one statement in the video. [3]

"UK ministers have been accused of spending British aid money on a public relations campaign to promote water privatisation in Sierra Leone," reported BBC News in August 2005. Vicky Cann, of the organization World Development Movement, criticized the British Department for International Development (DfID), saying, "In the poorest country of the world, which is still recovering from a decade long bitter civil war, DfID is not only going to pay international consultants to advise on how to privatise water ... but they will also pay for a propaganda campaign to run alongside it to counter public resistance." [4] The eight firms under consideration for the contract include ASI and PricewaterhouseCoopers, according to the Guardian. In May, a similar water privatization scheme in Tanzania that DfID paid Adam Smith International £273,000 to promote collapsed "after the contractor, Biwater, was asked to leave by the government." [5]

Personnel

• Roger Usher - Managing Director
• Phil Madden - Finance Director
• William Morrison - Director
• David Storer - Director
• Peter Young - International Director
• Amitabh Shrivastava - International Director
• Andrew Ros - Finance Director

Funding

Adam Smith International is funded by its clients and international aid agencies, such as the UK government's Department for International Development.

Clients

• Rwanda
• Andhra Pradesh
• Ghana
• Bangladesh
• Iraq
• Afghanistan

Affiliations

Adam Smith International is "a commercial enterprise affiliated to the right-wing free-market think tank, the Adam Smith Institute".

Contact details

Adam Smith International
Westminster Tower
3 Albert Embankment
London SE1 7SP
Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7735 6660
Fax: +44 (0) 20 7793 0090
Email: Mailbox AT AdamSmithInternational.com
Web:http://www.adamsmithinternational.com/

External links

• John Vidal, "Flagship water privatisation fails in Tanzania: UK firm's contract cancelled amid row over supply", The Guardian, May 25, 2005.
• World Development Movement, "DfID fund PR campaign for failed policy in world's poorest country", Media Release, August 30, 2005.
• "'UK aid cash funds PR campaign': UK ministers have been accused of spending British aid money on a public relations campaign to promote water privatisation in Sierra Leone", BBC, August 30, 2005.