UK: Sex claims: Oxfam ”failed in moral leadership”

Ministers could cut off funding for Oxfam if it cannot account for the way it handled claims of sexual misconduct by aid workers, the international development secretary has warned. Penny Mordaunt will meet the charity on Monday to hear more about claims staff used prostitutes in Haiti in 2011. She said Oxfam had failed in […]

Ministers could cut off funding for Oxfam if it cannot account for the way it handled claims of sexual misconduct by aid workers, the international development secretary has warned.

Penny Mordaunt will meet the charity on Monday to hear more about claims staff used prostitutes in Haiti in 2011.

She said Oxfam had failed in its “moral leadership” over the “scandal”.

Oxfam has faced growing criticism for the way it handled the allegations of misconduct by its staff in Haiti, where they were working in the aftermath of the huge earthquake that devastated they country in 2010.

The charity’s own investigation into the allegations led to four people being sacked and three others resigning – among them its country director, Roland van Hauwermeiren.

Ms Mordaunt said the allegations were “a complete betrayal of both the people Oxfam were there to help and also the people that sent them there to do that job”.