Oxfam could lose £29m in European funding because of its handling of sexual misconduct by senior staff in Haiti and Chad, officials in Brussels have said.
The warning on Monday evening came as the UK’s Charity Commission launched a statutory inquiry into Oxfam amid concerns it might not have “fully and frankly disclosed” all details about the Haiti allegations. The charity’s deputy chief executive, Penny Lawrence, has resigned, saying was “desperately sorry”.
A former senior official at the charity also said she had repeatedly warned senior management of a culture of sexual abuse in some offices around the world, and asked for more resources to tackle the issue. Helen Evans, the head of global safeguarding at Oxfam from 2012 to 2015, told Channel 4 News that in a single day she received allegations about a woman being coerced to have sex in a humanitarian response by an aid worker, a woman being coerced in exchange for aid and another case where a staff member had been struck off for sexual abuse and hadn’t disclosed that.
She also claimed that volunteers as young as 14 in Oxfam shops in the UK had alleged abuse. In at least one case an adult volunteer had allegedly assaulted a child volunteer. In 2012-14 there were 12 allegations, she said.
The European commission, which provided almost as much funding as the UK government last year, said: “We are ready to review and if needed cease funding any partner who is not living up to the required high ethical standards.”
A spokeswoman said it expects Oxfam to “fully clarify the allegations with maximum transparency as a matter of urgency”.
The potential threat to humanitarian funds came as Penny Lawrence, who was international programmes director when concerns about sexual misconduct were first reported, quit saying she was “ashamed” at what had happened.
She admitted that allegations about paying for sex relating to Roland van Hauwermeiren, the country director for Chad, and members of his team there had been raised internally before he moved to Haiti, but not handled properly.
“I am desperately sorry for the harm and distress that this has caused to Oxfam’s supporters, the wider development sector, and most of all, the vulnerable people who trusted us,” she said.
Her resignation coincided with a meeting between the international development secretary, Penny Mordaunt, and Oxfam’s chief executive, Mark Goldring, and chair of trustees, Caroline Thomson.
Mordaunt stopped short of stripping Oxfam of its British government funding as she threatened to on Sunday, but insisted it provide full details of those involved in the misconduct to authorities in the UK and abroad to allow legal action to begin.
Quick GuideHow dependent are UK NGOs on the government?
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How dependent are UK NGOs on the government?
Last year the UK government dedicated £13.3bn to international aid, with a significant chunk spent through UK charities. But these millions of pounds of aid money are now at stake, following reports of sexual exploitation by Oxfam staff in Haiti.
The government has threatened to cut funding to Oxfam unless the charity shows “moral leadership”. In 2016-17, Oxfam’s total income was £408.6m, according to its annual report, which includes £31.7m from the UK Department for International Development (DfID).
In addition to money from governments, international organisations and foundations, Oxfam generated £90m last year through its shop and trading network.
Around £1.2bn of UK aid is spent annually through NGOs. In 2016, Save the Children secured multi-year contracts worth £91m with the UK government. It describes itself as one of DfID’s “key civil society partners”, which implements around 60 UK government-funded projects in countries such as South Sudan, Somalia and Yemen.
In the same year, the British Red Cross received £16.3m in DfID funding. Around one fifth of Christian Aid’s income came from the department, which provided £20.1m in the year 2016-17.
Christian Aid reported in its 2016-17 annual report that donations had dropped 13%, which it said was due to “fewer high-profile humanitarian crises”.
Some have voiced concerns that as NGOs have become more reliant on government funding, they have also become less willing to criticise its policies. Charities are also nervous that the UK’s aid budget, even before the Haiti sexual misconduct scandal, has been under increasing scrutiny. Last year, the UK was one of only six countries to spend 0.7% of gross national income on aid, a target set by the UN decades ago.
Penny Mordaunt, secretary of state for international development, has said the UK remains committed to this target, despite some conservative MPs calling for it to be dropped. In a recent interview with the Telegraph, she said Britain will cut foreign aid spending to wealthier developing countries if they fail to “take responsibility”.
Haiti had earlier demanded Oxfam identify the aid workers who paid for sex in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake, calling for the person to be prosecuted “in the international system”. Its ambassador to the UK, Bocchit Edmond, said the country is also considering legal action against the charity.
Mordaunt said: “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.
“They spoke of the deep sense of disgrace and shame that they and their organisation feel about what has happened.”
It has been reported that Oxfam identified weaknesses in Van Hauwermeiren’s management approach to “gender issues” and that he handled complaints of sexual harassment or misconduct against another worker, but allowed him to stay in his job. Both men were later involved in the Haiti scandal.
The Haitian government said it was “shocked and appalled” by the way Oxfam allowed the staff members involved in the scandal to leave the country without reporting their behaviour. Edmond said Oxfam’s claim that it feared reporting the incident to Haitian police would endanger the women involved was “really insulting”.
“For the executive to know these crimes were committed and to allow those people to leave without informing the authorities is wrong,” he said. “We might be dealing with a paedophile ring. Prostitution is illegal and we believe they may have been underage kids.”
Q&AWhy is Oxfam under fire?
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In 2011 Oxfam discovered that several of its staff in Haiti, including the then country director, Roland van Hauwermeiren, had paid for sex, and it is alleged some of those involved may have been underage. Instead of reporting the aid workers to police in Haiti, it allowed them to leave the organisation without warning other charities about them.
The scandal deepened when it became clear that senior Oxfam managers received complaints about the behaviour of Van Hauwermeiren and another man while they were working for the charity in Chad, but allowed them to continue working and assigned them to Haiti after the 2010 earthquake.
Penny Lawrence, who has resigned as Oxfam deputy chief executive, was international programme director at the time. She said: "I take full responsibility."
Haiti is deeply upset at how Oxfam allowed the men to leave without alerting them to the crimes and is considering legal action. It also said it was insulted that Oxfam said it did not report the crimes because “it was extremely unlikely that any action would be taken”.
The UK government, which provided £34m to Oxfam last year, is threatening to cut funding unless the charity can demonstrate “moral leadership”.
Oxfam said it had received legal advice “that given the nature of the allegations, especially with the continued upheaval and chaos post the earthquake, it was extremely unlikely that any action would be taken”.
There were also signs that corporate funding may be threatened. The Co-operative Bank, Heathrow airport and Visa said that they were in urgent discussions with the charity, with the latter describing the revelations as “deeply concerning”.
Goldring spent the day fighting for the charity’s future on several fronts. The Charity Commission, which is due to meet Oxfam on Wednesday, said it was not told the full story at the time the charity first investigated allegations of misconduct in 2011. “We were categorically told there was no abuse of beneficiaries involved in the allegations,” said Michelle Russell, director of investigations at the regulator.
Oxfam’s head of safeguarding also resigned. Goldring said the pressure of public scrutiny had been intense and she had decided to take another job, but he did not believe it was in protest at a lack of resources. He added that in recent days the number of reports about incidents had increased.
Mordaunt told the charity it must change the way it handles allegations to include independent scrutiny and hinted that more resignations may be needed, saying “moral leadership comes from individuals taking responsibility for their actions”.
Jeremy Corbyn said he wanted the issue dealt with “firmly, severely and very very quickly”.
“I’m shocked and horrified at what apparently Oxfam staff were doing in Haiti, exploiting some of the most vulnerable people, who were victims of unbelievable levels of poverty. It should never be covered up,” the Labour leader said.
He said he wanted Oxfam to recover and “go on doing the great work it does both in this country and around the world in exposing the issues of global inequality and injustice”.
The former international development secretary Priti Patel claimed the Oxfam scandal was the “tip of the iceberg”. She said people in the Department for International Development knew about wider problems of sexual abuse in the aid sector.
All UK charities working overseas will be asked to confirm that they have referred all concerns they have about individuals and safeguarding cases to the relevant authorities, the government announced.
Oxfam has already proposed changes to its systems including a new whistleblowing procedure and stronger vetting for staff.
