chrisd
Major Champion
Lets face it, the Churches of various religions haven't been closed despite many many cases of abuse!
The Oxfam 'Scandal'
- Thread starter SwingsitlikeHogan
- Start date
User20205
Money List Winner
All of which again is perfectly reasonable, but only if it is a fully functioning organisation. What if all
Senior management are complicit in a cover up?
Have an enquiry, root & branch to coin a cliche! Including funding, salaries @ top level & specifically abuse cover up. It wasn’t limited to Haiti seemingly.
Corruption maybe a way of life, you may have to buy into it to get on. Sexual exploitation by a charity I reckon maybe optional?
What I was trying to point out is not everything is quite so black and white. Don't get me wrong, what's gone on is abhorrent. And if its been brushed under the carpet in the UK I'd like to see criminal charges brought over here.
As BM said, the organisation may, by default, disappear anyway. If they're that toxic, who will donate? I know I won't consider it unless there is a root and branch investigation. And if there has been anything criminal, then the letter of the law is followed.
However, if what we're seeing is a dozen people guilty of crimes, why close a charity with 27,300 staff and volunteers? Are all 27,300 guilty? Does it need a management team parachuted in to turn it around?
User20205
Money List Winner
I reckon that may be a good start. I doubt there will be any of the current lot left. Will the name not be toxic though, in the eyes of the charity supporter? They may have to reinvent themselves as oxfam 2.0. (The ones without the sex)
ColchesterFC
Journeyman Pro
I think that it will be far more than "a dozen" that are guilty of a crime. If prostitution is illegal in Haiti than those that used prostitutes are guilty of a crime. On top of that there are those that are alleged to have been involved in child abuse or exploitation of minors. And then there are those that were complicit in covering up the actions of those others. My suspicion is that the actual number that have committed some kind of offence will be in the hundreds rather than the tens.
This is what gets me when a scandal erupts. All sorts of assumptions and accusations are made. "Far more than a dozen." So how many is it?
6 men are alleged to have been involved. Of those 6, 2 of them are reputed to have done something similar in Chad previously. Those 6 were sacked, eventually. Oxfam's Global Head of Safeguarding had passed a report up to the senior leadership team, and also expressed concerns over the lack of CRB checks.
So, we're looking at a number in Haiti and some on the Senior Leadership Team. There are 8 on the Senior Leadership team. How many of the 8 were made aware of the allegations?
"Far more than a dozen" looks like 14 max, and that's assuming that the report was shared with all the Senior Team and not brushed under the carpet by a few of the Team.
A bit of hysteria and a Lynch mob isn't the way to resolve this. Let's see what the charities commission uncovers before we break out the noose.
ColchesterFC
Journeyman Pro
But we aren't only looking at the allegations in Haiti and Chad. I've no idea exactly how many are involved in total but my guess of far more than a dozen was based on the additional allegations that "sexual abuse by shop managers in UK stores against young volunteers" was also included in the crimes committed by Oxfam staff.
There was outrage when allegations about what Jimmy Saville and others had been up to came to light and the BBC got, quite rightly, hammered for it. This should be no different just because Oxfam are a charity that does a lot of good. Anyone that was involved or knew about what was going on should be punished and I suspect that as I previously stated it will be far more than a dozen by the time the story finishes.
And the Head of Safeguarding said at least 10% of staff were involved = 2,730.... really? And later on in her piece she said there were 12 allegations.
We just don't know how many, and that's why it should be left to the authorities. Speculating is both dangerous and unfair on the honest hard working Oxfam workers. However, even more worrying is that the charities commission and the Home Office were made aware of the allegations at the time.
I'm in no way defending them, and I don't care whether its a commercial business or a charity, if found guilty throw the book at them. But Lynch mobs? No, we're supposed to be more civilised than that.
NWJocko
Tour Winner
Agree with both of these.
Immediate step, logically, would be to remove/suspend all senior management and anyone who was involved or had knowledge of what had happened and parachute people in in the interim sadly the obvious choices would be Charities Commission and/or Gov't but given they had been made aware of these allegations then.......... Maybe other Charities boards can second people to put together an interim management team?
Oxfam do some great work (could do more if they didn't spend so much on salaries but that's an argument for another day) and hopefully will carry on doing so, but they've lost trust now and that usually doesn't end well.
Oxfam(Spain) are reporting that 1,200 people who donate via DD have cancelled the direct debit. I wonder what the figure is globally?
MegaSteve
Tour Winner
One sacrificial lamb falling on their metaphoric sword clearly hasn't cut the mustard...
Think they'll have to offer up a few more 'lambs'...
Not sure even the whole 'top table' doing the honourable 'thing' can save the day for them...
SwingsitlikeHogan
Major Champion
Well said
SwingsitlikeHogan
Major Champion
and again.
londonlewis
Tour Rookie
Film recommendation - The Whistleblower - with Rachel Weisz.
It's based on a true story and is worth watching.
It relates to aid workers and prostitution.
Having seen that film and then considering the news reagarding Oxfam, I would say this could quite easily be a crisis.
It's based on a true story and is worth watching.
It relates to aid workers and prostitution.
Having seen that film and then considering the news reagarding Oxfam, I would say this could quite easily be a crisis.
SwingsitlikeHogan
Major Champion
Could be. Oxfam might never recover. But with the right cleansing of management and perpetrators; with the appropriate oversight put in place - and a bit of trust from the public - maybe they can. And maybe Oxfam might be all the stronger for it - with a very salutary lesson sent out to all other major charities.
MegaSteve
Tour Winner
Well, here's hoping the additional funds for 'policing' Oxfam come from the 'top table' budget and not funds intended for the 'coalface'...
SwingsitlikeHogan
Major Champion
Thing is - I suspect (fear?) that Oxfam needs no more policing than the other major overseas aid charities. Maybe they can fund it from top people salary cuts - you would certainly hope so. But the oversight and governance will undoubtedly require additional people and funding from somewhere.
I also hope that this gives the Charities Commission food for thought. Whilst the CC has been portrayed as being toothless - perhaps the circumstances and nature of what has gone here would have been invisible to the CC. Which suggests that charities should provide the CC with an audit trail on all leavers and why they left - or were asked to leave.
Jacko_G
Blackballed
I see there are even more shocking revelations that Oxfam covered up. You had better hurry up and defend these too........
SwingsitlikeHogan
Major Champion
If that is directed at me then you are not actually picking up what I am saying. I deplore the acts that are alleged and that have been proven - but any 'heinous' misdemeanours and misguided actions of a few does not damn a whole organisation into oblivion - an organisation that has done massive amounts of good over decades in the most terrible of circumstances - and without which we would have to ask - if not such as Oxfam then who?
An important piece and words of sanity and perspective by Patrick Cockburn of The Independent on Saturday - in which he concludes
If it (Oxfam) does go down then it will be a triumph for hypocrisy, in which pundits and politicians are destroying Oxfam for mistreating Haitians, about whose fate they suddenly express great concern, although few of them have even heard of the Haitian cholera epidemic Oxfam tried to stop.
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices...workers-why-there-abuse-charity-a8214316.html
And so given your prompting I will go into my local Oxfam shop later this afternoon to give my support to the folks who work and volunteer there - for they will be despairing I am sure. They have my support and best wishes until they tell me that it is not deserved or they reject it.
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Bunkermagnet
Journeyman Pro
Public goodwill is like trust in a relationship. It can take an age to build, but a second to destroy.
Its a shame those with power and the positions at Oxfam didn’t take head to that saying.
Its a shame those with power and the positions at Oxfam didn’t take head to that saying.
