International Development Committee to quiz Oxfam bosses

  20 February 2018    Read: 1448
International Development Committee to quiz Oxfam bosses
 
Senior Oxfam executives are to appear before MPs amid criticism over the way it handled claims of sexual misconduct by its staff in Haiti, BBC reports.

The International Development Committee will question the charity's chief Mark Goldring and chair of trustees Caroline Thomson, about safeguarding policies.

Representatives from Save the Children and the Department for International Development will also be quizzed.

Oxfam has apologised to Haiti at a meeting with its minister of planning.

Earlier this month, the Times newspaper published allegations that Oxfam aid workers in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake had used prostitutes. Oxfam denied a cover-up but its handling of the scandal is being investigated by the Charity Commission.

MPs on the international development committee have convened an urgent session to investigate the crisis.

They will also ask Save the Children's chief Kevin Watkins about his charity's response to the issues raised.

DfID's Permanent Secretary Matthew Rycroft will tell the committee about the department's knowledge of the situation.

Oxfam's chief executive, Mark Goldring, told the Guardian newspaper on Saturday that the scale and intensity of the criticism against his organisation in the wake of claims its workers used prostitutes in Haiti was out of proportion to its level of culpability.

'Problem staff'
On Monday, Oxfam - which has almost 10,000 staff working in more than 90 countries - released a redacted version of its internal report on alleged abuse by some of its staff in Haiti, saying it wants to be "as transparent as possible" about the decisions it made.

It revealed that three of the men accused of sexual misconduct in Haiti physically threatened witnesses during a 2011 investigation.

 


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