Minister’s blast for Oxfam as Minnie Driver quits as charity ambassador
REVELATIONS around the handling of sex allegations at Oxfam should be a wake-up call to the charity sector, the International Development Secretary said.
Penny Mordaunt said the charity failed to show moral leadership and had not properly informed donors, regulators and prosecutors about the actions of its workers.
Hollywood star Minnie Driver has become the first celebrity to quit as an Oxfam ambassador following allegations that senior staff working in crisis zones paid for sex with vulnerable locals.
‘Devastated’: Minnie Driver
The charity also faces a challenge to hang on to major corporate partners, and the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award has confirmed it is reviewing its association with the organisation.
In a speech to an aid conference in Stockholm, Ms Mordaunt tore into Oxfam over its response to the revelations about aid workers in Haiti in 2011.
She said: “The recent revelations about Oxfam — not solely the actions perpetrated by a number of those staff — but the way the organisation responded to those events, should be a wake-up call to the sector.
“They let perpetrators go. They did not inform donors, their regulator or prosecuting authorities. It was not just the processes and procedures of that organisation that were lacking but moral leadership.”
Oxfam received £31.7m in taxpayer funding in 2016/17.
But Ms Mordaunt indicated millions in taxpayer funding could be cut off in the wake of the scandal. She said: “No organisation is too big, or our work with them too complex, for me to hesitate to remove funding from them if we cannot trust them to put the beneficiaries of aid first,” she said.
Oxfam officials met the Charity Commission yesterday after the regulator launched a statutory inquiry.
Ms Morduant, who said a culture change is needed, is due to meet the National Crime Agency today following talks with charity bosses, regulators and experts.
Big-name supporters including Marks & Spencer, Visa and Heathrow Airport said they are monitoring the situation closely.
Good Will Hunting star Driver quit her Oxfam role after 20 years with the charity, saying she was devastated by the scandal.
The 48-year-old tweeted: “All I can tell you about this awful revelation about Oxfam is that I am devastated. Devastated for the women wh o were used by people sent there to help them, devastated by the response of an organisation that I have been raising awareness for since I was nine years old.”