Aid worker: I blew the whistle on my boss. Then I lost my job

An aid charity whistle-blower has told how she lost her job after reporting her boss’s inappropriate relationship with a local woman.

Sheila Macisaac said her contract was not renewed but her boss kept his job and is now working for another charity in Africa.

Sheila, 68, from Edinburgh, worked in Africa in the late ’90s for the charity and witnessed cases of alcohol and sex abuse by bosses.

“One was so drunk we had to try to sober him up before he gave a speech in Zanzibar.

“He then spent the evening in a club with women. One woman he struck up a sexual relationship with was given a job in the charity and then left after becoming pregnant.

“My contract with the charity was not renewed after I reported him to his UK boss.

“He kept his job and is now working with another charity,

‘ We had to sober him up before he gave a speech

still in Africa. As far I am aware, he has never been disciplined.”

Sheila, who does not want to identify the charity, is backing calls for an international disclosure register for charity workers. She says it is desperately needed because of the shocking abuse she has seen while she worked in Africa, Zanzibar, Somalia and Kenya.

“Anyone who has misused money or acted unprofessionally, through alcohol or sexual relations and subsequent favours, should be removed from the register.

“I have also witnessed other serious incidents where charity staff lived in mansions in Kenya with swimming pools.

“Meanwhile, we were working in the field over the border in Somalia helping refugees who had not eaten for days.

“Good condition Land Rovers were used to ferry ex-pats about when we were using ones with no windows.

“We worked five weeks on and one off in the staff house in Nairobi. Some of the staff used the house as a place to take prostitutes.

“None of this was stopped or frowned upon.

“There was an abuse of funds which involved a charity boss flying his friends out to see his work in Africa to be shown around.”