Oxfam Haiti scandal could lead to reforms that restore credibility of charities
Has anyone noticed the irony surrounding the Oxfam controversy?
It is how the debate has shifted in a matter of weeks from the antics of businessmen at the Presidents Club charity dinner to how charities behave themselves (your report, 14 February).
At the time some of them were refusing to accept donations from the club. Now the behaviour of some people in charities themselves is prompting an argument about the efficacy of funding foreign aid through them at all.
The International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt and her Scottish counterpart Alasdair Allan are right to send out warnings. Get your houses in order, introduce codes and systems to prevent further abuse or funding will cease. But those who question the purpose of foreign aid in the light of this debacle should remember a key point: in recent years we have witnessed corruption and abuse in a number of key sectors – the arms trade, the police, the Westminster parliament itself, old folks’ homes, childrens’ homes to mention but a few.
This is not in itself a case for doing away entirely with these bodies, but a case for real reform, for more rigorous standards of inspection and monitoring.
In the case of charities there needs to be a recognition that they are no longer the benevolent, corner shop operation to which we ease our conscience with the occasional donation. They are international entities which need to engage in the world of power politics and economics. The very name “charity” is almost a misnomer given the career structures and salaries afforded key personnel.
This can often sit uneasily with the thousands of people who ought to be paid a wage but labour on a voluntary basis, often year by year, to support a cause in which they believe. Ms Mordaunt and Dr Allan should urge the Charities Commission to look closely at that level of exploitation, which is as serious as those already highlighted in the socalled “gig economy”.
The horrors exposed in Haiti could well lead to reforms that restore the credibility of the charities right across their range of operations.
BOB TAYLOR Shiel Court, Glenrothes