Richard Laing, head of Britain’s CDC (body set up in 1948 as the Colonial Development Corporation and seemingly never renamed to account for the fact the Britain no longer has an empire) earns enough every year to run a small “third world” country for a few days. In 2007 he scooped this little windfall into his pocket (legally) and has now been softly chastised by a committee of parliamentarians headed by its chairman Edward Leigh. (Gets to keep the cash though).

The group channels investment funds into companies operating in poorer countries to assist with growth rather than just giving financial aid to poor individuals. A most excellent idea and it seems to have been quite successful, so successful in fact that it can award hefty salaries and throw productivity bonuses’ about like confetti.

There’s nothing illegal going on here, although part of the reason for the success of the CDC is that it has been careful to invest in some places around the world that cannot be described as the poorest of the poor, for example China, South Africa and India. These places do not need the level of support that is required in places like Malawi, Somalia and Afghanistan, the very places CDC was meant to support. However investing in stronger economies brings a greater return, a greater return makes hefty bonuses possible, so where will the CDC’s directors invest? I wonder.

Mr Leigh expressed his concern thus: “I think that paying an income of nearly £1m to somebody who works in an entirely publicly-owned company is an insult to the millions of people living on $1 a day, and the tens of thousands of charity workers who are slaving away on tiny salaries.”

Well said that man, but what are you going to do about it?

New directives have been given requiring 75% of investment to be made in sub-Saharan Africa, I suppose that’s a welcome start.

We wait with keen interest and baited breath, as do those who this money is supposed to be targeted at.