Oxfam Scandal | Haiti leader says Oxfam workers violated ‘basic human decency’

Haiti: President Jovenel Moise talks during a ceremony on the eighth anniversary of the 2010 earthquake, in Port-au-Prince

Haiti’s president condemned the British charity Oxfam for a sexual misconduct scandal, describing the alleged misbehavior of aid workers handling earthquake recovery efforts as a violation of basic human decency.

The comments from Haitian President Jovenel Moise add to the condemnation the anti-poverty charity has received since the Times of London revealed last week some Oxfam employees paid for sex while working in Haiti among people devastated by the 2010 earthquake.

“There is nothing more shameful than a sexual predator using the veil of catastrophe as a means to exploit the vulnerable in their most defenseless moments,” Moise said yesterday [Macau time]. “What transpired is a violation of basic human decency.”

Meanwhile, Britain’s charity watchdog opened an inquiry into how Oxfam handled the allegations of sexual abuse in Haiti in 2011.

Documents provided by Oxfam have led to further questions and suggest that the charity might not have “fully and frankly disclosed material details about the allegations at the time,” the Charity Commission said.

The investigation was launched a day after Oxfam Great Britain’s deputy chief executive resigned and apologized to the government and donors.

“Issues revealed in recent days are shocking and unacceptable,” commission Deputy Chief Executive David Holdsworth said. “It is important that we take this urgent step to ensure that these matters can be dealt with fully and robustly.”

Haiti’s president described the recent disclosures as “disheartening” since the British people gave money to help Haiti recover from the earthquake “with altruistic intent.”

“The people of Haiti were and are immensely thankful for the support the international community brought to us in the wake of our terrible tragedy in 2010, but that gratitude ought not to be mistaken for docility in the face of abhorrent violations such as these,” Moise said. “Disasters may strike, but a people’s dignity and rights persist.”

Oxfam International is a confederation of 20 organizations. The recent allegations concerning Haiti and Chad relate to Oxfam GB, one of the 20 affiliate organizations, but there are troubles elsewhere with the organization.

Oxfam corruption in GUATEMALA

Prosecutors said they have detained ex-President Alvaro Colom and nearly his entire former Cabinet, including the current chairman of Oxfam International, in a Guatemala corruption case involving a bus concession.

Colom, who governed in 2008-2012, is the latest in a series of former Guatemalan presidents to face legal problems. He was recently named by the Organization of American States as an envoy to Honduras in a bid to help sort out a highly disputed election there.

Colom said after appearing making a court appearance that as far as he knows, the concession was handled properly. He added that he hopes justice is done in the case.

Guatemala: Police officers pat down former Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom

Special prosecutor Juan Francisco Sandoval, who said Colom was arrested yesterday, is looking into questionable purchases of public buses for Guatemala City. Sandoval said those arrested face charges of fraud and embezzlement.

Sandoval said the detentions included the former ministers of the interior, finance, defense, economy, education, labor, environment, health, sports and culture, and energy and mines. Ex-Finance Minister Alberto Fuentes Knight is the Oxfam chairman.

The global nonprofit said in a statement that it did not know the nature of formal charges against Fuentes.

“However,” it said, “he has been entirely open with his Oxfam board and executive that he has been among former officials being investigated as part of a budgetary transaction made by the Guatemalan government while he was finance minister.”

“He has assured us that he has cooperated fully with the investigation in the confidence he did not knowingly transgress rules or procedures,” the group added.

The case centers on a public bus company known as Transurbano. The government auctioned off 25-year concessions for Guatemala City bus routes, and the private companies that won the contracts were later exempted from taxes.

Prosecutors say the process was deeply flawed and included subsidies and other measures that benefited public servants. The United Nations anti-corruption mission in Guatemala participated in the investigation.

Chief prosecutor Thelma Aldana said later at a news conference that investigators suspect the government was defrauded out of USD35 million.

A number of Guatemalan ex-presidents and other high-ranking officials have been swept in a series of corruption probes.

They include a customs fraud scandal that allegedly sent kickbacks to then-President Otto Perez Molina and Vice President Roxana Baldetti, leading both to resign in 2015. They have been jailed awaiting trial, but more than 100 defense filings have delayed the process.

Alfonso Portillo, Guatemala’s president in 2000-2004, was extradited to the United States and pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy in 2014.  Portillo acknowledged taking $2.5 million in bribes from the government of Taiwan to continue Guatemala’s diplomatic recognition of Taipei. MDT/Agencies

Oxfam troubles with China

In 2010, Oxfam got in trouble with Beijing. China’s education ministry has ordered universities to cut ties with Oxfam and prevent it from recruiting on campuses, accusing its Hong Kong branch of a hidden political agenda. A notice attributed to the education ministry said the Hong Kong branch of Oxfam, which oversees operations on the mainland, was a “non-governmental organization seeking to infiltrate” the mainland. It described the group’s head as a “stalwart of the opposition faction”, according to the South China Morning Post, which saw the notice on a website run by Minzu University in Beijing. The notice, dated 4 February 2010, added: “All education departments and institutions of higher education must raise their guard and together recognize and take precautions against the unfriendly intentions of Oxfam Hong Kong’s recruitment of college volunteers.” Since then, Oxfam was banned from universities’ campuses on the mainland.