Citing concerns over corruption, poor standards and poor public financial management, the Dutch government has decided to withdraw some €14 million ($18.9 million) worth of annual assistance for Uganda’s education sector.

This was announced by Dutch Ambassador to Uganda Jeroen Verheul, who explained that several of the Dutch government’s concerns over how education sector programs in Uganda were handled have gone unaddressed, prompting the government to “ask ourselves some uncomfortable questions.”

“We decided to shift our focus to productive areas like agriculture,” he said, according to The Monitor.

The Netherlands suspended its funding for Uganda’s education sector in May 2009 after learning of alleged fraud in the procurement of some 459,000 textbooks for several schools in northern Uganda. The aid was reinstated in 2010 but will now be pulled out with the latest decision announced Nov. 16.

Ugandan government officials said they were aware of the Netherland’s concerns and admitted they were alerted of a possible aid cutoff. Education Minister Jessica Alupo said the government has increased its education budget in response.

Corruption, and Uganda’s efforts to address it, is a key concern among the country’s donors. In December 2010, a group of donors that include the World Bank, the European Commission, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Norway, Austria, Sweden and Ireland said they would cut at least 10 percent off the budget support pledged for fiscal 2010-2011 because of Uganda’s failure to address high-level corruption.

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