Top Oxfam official quits over scandal

London: The deputy chief executive of Oxfam resigned on Monday over the British charity’s handling of a prostitution scandal in Haiti involving its staff members and allegations of similar behaviour in Chad.

London, Feb. 12: Oxfam’s deputy chief executive has resigned, saying she took “full responsibility” for failing to act immediately in the sexual misconduct scandal involving the charity’s workers in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake.

Penny Lawrence, Oxfam programme director at the time of the misconduct, says she is “ashamed that this happened on my watch.”

Lawrence says allegations were first raised about the behaviour of some Oxfam staff in an earlier mission.

She said, “It is now clear that these allegations — involving the use of prostitutes and which related to behaviour of both the country director and members of his team in Chad — were raised before he moved to Haiti.”

Oxfam has apologised unreservedly about the conduct of seven of its employees but denied that it attempted to cover up the scandal.

Meanwhile, Oxfam officials are set to meet with Britain’s international development secretary in a bid to retain government funding amid a deepening scandal over sexual misconduct by the charity’s workers in Haiti.

Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt is demanding that Oxfam show moral accountability and provide full disclosure about the case. On Sunday she threatened to pull public funding from Oxfam unless the charity reveals everything it knows about allegations that some of staff used prostitutes, some of whom were minors, while working in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake that devastated the country. — AFP

OXFAM HAS been left reeling by reports that senior staff hired young sex workers in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake. THE CHARITY’S chiefs have been summoned by the British government to explain their handling of the scandal amid accusations it covered up the episode.