The Charity Commission is to investigate Oxfam’s operations in Haiti, Chad and Liberia as part of a widescale inquiry into aid workers’ conduct overseas.
The charity’s bosses will also be hauled before MPs for a separate probe into allegations of sexual misconduct by its staff.
The developments came as Oxfam admitted rehiring one of the workers sacked over the Haiti sex scandal.
The charity said it later took him on as a consultant in Ethiopia – a decision it described as a ‘serious error’.
Chief executive Mark Goldring (left) and chairman of trustees Caroline Thomson (right) will face the Commons International Development Committee
Chief executive Mark Goldring and chairman of trustees Caroline Thomson will face the Commons International Development Committee at an ‘urgent session’ next Tuesday to answer questions about the scandal and the charity’s safeguarding policies.
Save the Children’s chief executive Kevin Watkins is also due to attend for questioning about sexual exploitation in the aid sector.
International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt held 45 minutes of talks yesterday with the director-general of the National Crime Agency, Lynne Owens, to discuss how they could jointly tackle sexual exploitation and abuse.
The NCA has been ‘closely monitoring’ allegations of overseas abuse and has said it has a range of powers to investigate certain sexual offences committed outside the UK.
It came after Archbishop Desmond Tutu announced he was retiring from his Oxfam ambassador role over the British charity’s handling of sexual misconduct allegations
Miss Mordaunt has accused the charity of failing to show moral leadership by not properly informing donors about the actions of its workers, and has made clear its public funding could be at risk.
Oxfam received £31.7million from the British government in 2016-17.
The Charity Commission said it was concerned the charity ‘may not have fully and frankly disclosed material details about the allegations at the time in 2011, its handling of the incidents since and the impact that these have both had on public trust and confidence’.
International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt (above) held talks with the director-general of the National Crime Agency to discuss how they could jointly tackle sexual exploitation and abuse
The probe will examine the charity’s governance, including Mr Goldring’s leadership and the culture within the organisation.
And it will question whether Oxfam did all it could to safeguard the vulnerable and was open about all incidents – in regard to all incidents since 2011 including in Haiti.
The probe will question whether it met its responsibility to provide a safe environment for its beneficiaries, staff and other charity workers – and whether its actions maintained ‘its reputation as a major aid charity’.
Michelle Russell, director of investigations at the Charity Commission, said: ‘Acting in the public interest as regulator, this inquiry must and will establish the facts about what the charity knew about events in Haiti in 2011 and how it responded at the time and since.’
The inquiry will review case records and look at the charity’s communications with law enforcement and other agencies.
Several staff were sacked or resigned in 2011 over a string of lurid claims, including that they had used sex workers while delivering aid to earthquake victims in Haiti.
An Oxfam spokesman said it had identified that ‘one of those dismissed by Oxfam as a result of the sexual misconduct case in Haiti’ was ‘subsequently hired by Oxfam as a consultant in Ethiopia’.
Hiring the man ‘even in an emergency as a short-term consultant’ was a ‘serious error and should never have happened’, he said.
The charity said it was now checking whether there were ‘any issues’ while the man was posted in Ethiopia.