WITH Oxfam in the news for all the wrong reasons, perhaps now is the time to look afresh at the UK’s Gift Aid Scheme (“Donations to Scots charities may be hit by Oxfam Haiti sex scandal”, The Herald, February 14). This scheme allows registered charities to reclaim 25p from the Treasury for every £1 donated to the charity.

I help as a volunteer in our local Oxfam Bookshop. Last year the Gift Aid Scheme earned our charity shop some £14,000. Multiply this amongst the hundreds of charities that at present qualify and the Treasury must be paying out many millions of pounds each year.

In addition to the money that is returned to these charities, there is a double “loss”’ to the Treasury as higher-rate income tax payers can reclaim part of their Gift Aided donations when making their HMRC returns. I fully support this generous assistance to those deserving charities that are engaged in essential humanitarian work both here in the UK and in developing countries.

But I fail to see the rationale in these tough economic times for the Treasury to be paying out millions to theatres, museums, concert halls, galleries and, particularly, the stately homes of some of the wealthiest members of society.

Even the Queen is a beneficiary as visitors to Holyrood Palace and the Queen’s Gallery are encouraged to Gift Aid their entrance fee. Time for a rethink?

Eric Melvin,

6 Cluny Place,

Edinburgh.

THE myth underpinning Big Aid – that the trillions of dollars sent by the West to developing African nations has reduced poverty and increased growth – has been debunked in recent years by African economists such as Dambisa Moyo (Dead Aid).

Contrasting African countries that rejected the aid route and others that become aid-junkies these economists showed that the former prospered while the latter were trapped in a vicious circle of corruption, market distortion and endemic poverty.

Now another myth, that of simple volunteers doing good, has also been exposed. The original charities are now huge, manipulative non-governmental organisations (NGOs) worth more than $1 trillion a year, with politically-correct, anti-capitalist and green-extremist agendas.

Too often on the ground it is the privileged scions of the bourgeoisie who swan around in 4x4s enjoying a kind of genteel “outdoor relief” and it is their gross sense of entitlement that underlies the sexual abuse of teenage “natives”.

Rev Dr John Cameron,

10 Howard Place,

St Andrews.

I HAVE had a problem with the big charities for years. I stopped giving to charities that were paying massive salaries and tried to have you sign up to the charity in the street. The efficiency ratings of many (how much per pound to run the charity) are often very poor.

Here in Scotland, we have two world-famous charities that hit great efficiency targets and work using the people they are aiding: Sciaf and Mary’s Meals. Many other small, locally based charities also beat the big boys easily when it comes to efficiency.

B McKenna,

Overton Avenue, Dumbarton.