Treasury had aid doubts

Cabinet papers show the Treasury raised concerns about a decision to merge government aid agency NZAid back into the Foreign Affairs Ministry.

Radio New Zealand obtained the papers under the Official Information Act.

NZAid has been semi-autonomous since 2002. Treasury said there was no strong case to merge it back and it would have been less risky to instead change the agency's objectives.

The Government recently changed the focus of aid from poverty elimination to sustainable economic growth.

Treasury said closer alignment between aid and foreign policy goals could have been met under ministerial direction. It said there were possible risks around transparency of aid delivery in changing NZAid's status, but that they could be managed.