Sex and corruption scandals rock Oxfam
No more cash if you don’t come clean on abuse, UK minister warns charities
Britain will stop funding overseas aid agencies if they fail to learn the lessons from Oxfam’s sex abuse scandal, and the government will discuss possible prosecutions with law enforcement, the British development minister said yesterday.
Penny Mordaunt told antipoverty groups that Britain would cut funding if they could not show they were clear of the kind of abuse that has rocked Oxfam. The Times newspaper reported on Friday that some Oxfam staff paid for sex with prostitutes in Haiti after the country’s 2010 earthquake. Oxfam has neither confirmed nor denied that specific account but has said an internal investigation in 2011 confirmed sexual misconduct occurred and it has apologised.
“Unless you safeguard everyone your organisation comes into contact with, including beneficiaries, staff and volunteers, we will not fund you,” Mordaunt told a conference attended by representatives of development agencies in Stockholm.
Oxfam faced fresh pressure after a former senior member of staff said her concerns about “a culture of sexual abuse” involving aid workers had not been taken seriously by the charity’s bosses. Helen Evans’ statement deepened the scandal.
Evans, who was in charge of investigating allegations against Oxfam staff members between 2012 and 2015, told Channel 4 television that abuse cases she had heard of included a woman who had been coerced into having sex in exchange for aid.
Separately, the chairman of Oxfam’s international umbrella group, Juan Alberto Fuentes, was arrested on Tuesday in his home country Guatemala as part of a corruption investigation unrelated to the charity’s work.
MSF fired 19 over abuse
Also yesterday, international aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) said it had dealt with 24 cases of sexual harassment or abuse among its 40,000 staff last year, and dismissed 19 people as a result.
The same message goes out to any organisation or partner which receives UK aid. We want procedures to change. We want leaders to lead with moral authority and we want staff to be held accountable.” Penny Mordaunt | Britain’s International Development Secretary
T he international aid sector must take action to end abuses, Britain’s International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt said yesterday following a spate of revelations about misconduct at British charity Oxfam.
Mordaunt also warned Britain would not partner with charities that do not hold staff accountable for their actions and are not transparent following allegations of a coverup of a prostitution scandal at Oxfam.
“This week, horrifying allegations have come to light about the actions of some Oxfam staff in Haiti in 2011,” Mordaunt told the Agenda 2030 children’s welfare conference in Stockholm, according to extracts from her speech published by her ministry.
The scandal led to the resignation of Oxfam’s deputy head and has thrown into question government funding for the charity, which amounted to around £32 million ($44 million, Dh117 million) last year.
Lack of transparency
“The same message goes out to any organisation or partner which receives UK aid. We want procedures to change. We want leaders to lead with moral authority and we want staff to be held accountable,” she said.
“Unless you report every serious incident or allegation, no matter how damaging to your reputation — we cannot be partners,” she said.
Oxfam has been accused of a lack of transparency over an investigation into the use of prostitutes by staff members in Haiti which led to the dismissal of four employees and three others being allowed to resign.
The allegations revolve around Oxfam’s then head of mission in Haiti, Belgian national Roland van Hauwermeiren, whose behaviour had already led to complaints when he worked for the charity in Chad.
After resigning from Oxfam, he went on to work for French charity Action Against Hunger in Bangladesh.
There were reports on Wednesday that there had already been complaints about van Hauwermeiren when he worked for the British medical charity Merlin in Liberia.
Since the scandal was first reported last week, allegations have been reported about similar cover-ups over sexual misconduct at different charities.
Sickens and disgusts
“Sexual abuse and exploitation is an issue the entire development sector needs to confront,” Mordaunt said, calling for a culture that “ensures victims and whistle-blowers can come forward without fear”.
When abuse is carried out “by people in positions of power, people we entrust to help and protect, it rightly sickens and disgusts. And compels us to take action,” she said.