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Deputy Head of Oxfam Quits over Scandal

The British charity has been rocked by allegations of sexual misconduct by staff in Haiti and Chad.

The deputy head of Oxfam has resigned over what she says was the British charity’s failure to adequately respond to past allegations of sexual misconduct by some of its staff in Haiti and Chad.

One of the best-known international NGOs, with aid programs running across the globe, Oxfam was under threat of losing its British government funding over sexual misconduct allegations first reported by the Times newspaper last week.

The scandal was fast escalating into a broader crisis for Britain’s aid sector by bolstering critics in the ruling Conservative Party who have argued that the government should reduce spending on aid in favour of domestic priorities.

Aid minister Penny Mordaunt, who threatened on Sunday to withdraw government funding from Oxfam unless it gave the full facts about events in Haiti, summoned senior managers from the charity to a meeting on Monday.

“Oxfam made a full and unqualified apology – to me, and to the people of Britain and Haiti – for the appalling behaviour of some of their staff in Haiti in 2011, and for the wider failings of their organisation’s response to it,” Mordaunt said after meeting Oxfam’s chief executive, Mark Goldring.

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