Oxfam executive resigns over sex scandal
Charity workers face allegations that include using prostitutes and downloading pornography
LONDON — Oxfam’s deputy chief executive resigned Monday, saying she took “full responsibility” for failing to act immediately in the sexual misconduct scandal involving the charity’s workers in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake.
Penny Lawrence, Oxfam program director at the time, said she was “ashamed that this happened on my watch.”
At an emergency meeting Monday with British government officials, Oxfam’s leaders “also made a full and unqualified apology” and spoke of a “deep sense of disgrace and shame,” said British Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt.
Oxfam chief executive Mark Goldring and trustee chairwoman Caroline Thomson were at the meeting. Mordaunt had threatened to pull public funding from Oxfam unless the charity revealed everything it knows about the Haiti allegations.
It’s unclear whether the resignation and the apology will quell the scandal, which first emerged when the Times of London reported that seven former Oxfam staff members who worked in Haiti faced allegations that included using prostitutes and downloading pornography.
Oxfam says it investigated the allegations
in 2011 and then fired four people and let three others resign after uncovering sexual misconduct, bullying, intimidation and failure to protect staff.
Lawrence said Monday that the allegations of sexual misconduct were first raised about some Oxfam staff in an earlier mission in Chad.
“It is now clear that these allegations — involving the use of prostitutes and which related to behaviour
of both the country director and members of his team in Chad — were raised before he moved to Haiti,” she said.
Mordaunt said the charity had agreed to provide full details about the perpetrators to their home countries so they can face possible prosecution. Mordaunt said she had written to all U.K. charities that work overseas to demand they do more to protect vulnerable people.
Also Monday, the European Commission demanded that Oxfam offer maximum transparency in responding to the allegations about Haiti.
The Sunday Times said the problem goes beyond Oxfam. More than 120 people working for British charities were accused of sexual abuse in the past year.
Oxfam had 87 cases, the largest number of any charity. Also mentioned were Save the Children, the British Red Cross and Christian Aid.
Save the Children said it investigated 31 cases of sexual harassment last year, which resulted in 16 people being fired and 10 being referred to authorities. None of the cases involved children and all of them occurred abroad, the charity said.
The British Red Cross said it hasn’t dismissed staff members working overseas for sexual abuse, harassment or pedophilia in at least the past five years.
Christian Aid said it investigated two sexual misconduct cases in the last 12 months, resulting in the dismissal of one worker.