Fifteen cents in every euro of Dutch overseas development aid money is spent in the Netherlands, the foreign affairs ministry said on Tuesday.

The ministry was reacting to figures released by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and published in the British newspaper The Guardian.

According to that report, 23.6% of development aid remained in the Netherlands in 2012. However, the ministry says that figure is wrong. In 2012, 14.8% of the money was spent within the country.

‘The Guardian article only looks at bilateral help and the figure is therefore higher,’ the ministry writes in a statement to the Dutch press. ‘Multilateral help, for instance through UN organisations, was not included.’

The Netherlands’ budget for development aid was €4.38bn in 2012 with 14.8% spent in the country on administration costs, grants for students from developing countries, initial help for asylum seekers entering the country and public information.

According to the OECD figures, Greece spends 90% of its aid budget in Greece, Austria 60% and Italy 45%.