Oxfam censors names of sacked Haiti staff

OXFAM has risked accusations of protecting staff who used prostitutes in Haiti after it released a censored version of its 2011 report into the scandal without the names of workers sacked.

The charity said it wanted to be “as transparent as possible” about the investigation into the use of prostitutes by its staff. Seven were sacked or allowed to leave over their behaviour on the earthquake-hit island in 2010.

However, it redacted the names of all guilty parties apart from Roland van Hauwermeiren, the former country director for Haiti, whose name was already in the public domain. The redacted report was released at around 6pm last night, 10 days after it was leaked to a newspaper, throwing the charity into crisis. Oxfam said it had removed names “to comply with the need for due process and confidentiality required by both privacy law and recommended UN guidelines on the issue of sexual exploitation and abuse”.

Among those whose names were redacted were three men dismissed or who resigned for using prostitutes in Oxfam-funded properties and two who were dismissed for bullying and intimidation of Oxfam staff. A sixth was dismissed for gross misconduct for failing in his duty to protect staff. Three staff members under suspicion also “physically threatened” and “intimidated” a witness in the inquiry, the report said.

The investigation also concluded in its safeguarding recommendations at the end of the report that charities should be warned about “problem staff ”. Some of the workers accused of abuse went on to successfully take up future posts in the aid sector.

Earlier, Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Conservative leader, said that Mark Goldring, the chief executive of Oxfam, had shown that he “doesn’t get it” after he gave an interview in which he said Oxfam’s misdeeds had been overblown because the charity had not “murdered babies in their cots”.

Ms Davidson said that “if he wants to lead Oxfam, he has to demonstrate that he understands what Oxfam has done wrong”.