The Oxfam 'Scandal'

SwingsitlikeHogan said:
Corrupt to the core to me means that the organisation is corrupt at every level...that corruption is endemic and systematic throughout Oxfam. What are you looking for? What end game do you want for this 'corrupt' organisation?
Click to expand...

what end game do you want? they are at best negligent, at worst corrupt.
doesn't feel like they can survive in their current form to me
 
SwingsitlikeHogan said:
What do you want - Oxfam to fold?
Click to expand...

What they need to do/have is a top down [fully transparent] review of their entire operation...

Fully outlining why so relatively little of the money they receive reaches the 'coalface'...

That's just for starters I think...

Then the same for all their procedures to highlight all their obvious management failings and how they intend to address them...
 
Jacko_G said:
As has been stated elsewhere on this thread, when I give to charity I try and support local charities, not multi national "companies" with luxurious head offices, numerous board members on high salaries and company cars.

Charity starts at home and we have thousands living in poverty and the same again living on the streets.
Click to expand...

Have you actually been in the 'luxurious' head offices of many major charities? Well I have. And many are not that luxurious at all - and where they appear so, they are often that way 'front of house' and to a pretty limited extent. These charities are multi-million pound organisations and they need good and smart people - they attract support and staff by having half decent accomodation - running these organisations from ramshackle shoe-box premises is never going to cut it. Besides. Many charities have their HO in buildings that have either been donated to them or that are leased at very low cost.

BTW - IMO Charity begins at home is a trite phrase, misunderstanding the word charity and what is meant by it - as it actually to do with loving those closest to you. Because if you love and care for your own (and care here does not mean monetarily), and that love is reciprocated, our mindset is such that we are better minded and able to extend our love and care to others outside of our immediate family - and the extent of that is not limited by boundaries - it is only limited by the extent of the brotherhood of man - and that is ALL of us who inhabit this planet.
 
Last edited:
therod said:
what end game do you want? they are at best negligent, at worst corrupt.
doesn't feel like they can survive in their current form to me
Click to expand...

What end game do YOU want?

I do not want Oxfam brought to it's knees as that is an absurdity and would likely cause chaos and untold misery - and deaths - across the globe in the many places where thousands work for and on behalf of Oxfam bringing help and hope to the very poorest and desperate on the planet.
 
Last edited:
MegaSteve said:
What they need to do/have is a top down [fully transparent] review of their entire operation...

Fully outlining why so relatively little of the money they receive reaches the 'coalface'...

That's just for starters I think...

Then the same for all their procedures to highlight all their obvious management failings and how they intend to address them...
Click to expand...

Here's the facts - which will have been audited and OK'd by the Charities Commission

https://www.oxfam.org.uk/donate/how-we-spend-your-money

Charities do not just get away with spending whatever the want however they want - The Charities Commission is on their case all the time.
 
SwingsitlikeHogan said:
What end game do YOU want?
Click to expand...

they have legitimised abuse, employed a fella who has form for this type of behaviour & attempted to bury these allegations. they aren't fit for purpose. they won't survive in their current format. they're a toxic organisation. What I want isn't important, what their supporters want and what the 'vulnerable' people they care for need, is answers I suspect.
i'm sure they have good people working for them but the organisation has endorsed sexual exploitation of minors....you ok with that?
 
therod said:
they have legitimised abuse, employed a fella who has form for this type of behaviour & attempted to bury these allegations. they aren't fit for purpose. they won't survive in their current format. they're a toxic organisation. What I want isn't important, what their supporters want and what the 'vulnerable' people they care for need is answers I suspect.
i'm sure they have good people working for them but the organisation has endorsed sexual exploitation of minors....you ok with that?
Click to expand...

So all that said - what is your end game?
 
SwingsitlikeHogan said:
Have you actually been in the 'luxurious' head offices of many major charities? Well I have. And many are not that luxurious at all - and where they appear so, they are often that way 'front of house' and to a pretty limited extent. These charities are multi-million pound organisations and they need good and smart people - they attract support and staff by having half decent accomodation - running these organisations from ramshackle shoe-box premises is never going to cut it. Besides. Many charities have their HO in buildings that have either been donated to them or that are leased at very low cost.

BTW - IMO Charity begins at home is a trite phrase, misunderstanding the word charity and what is meant by it - as it actually to do with loving those closest to you. Because if you love and care for your own (and care here does not mean monetarily), and that love is reciprocated, our mindset is such that we are better minded and able to extend our love and care to others outside of our immediate family - and the extent of that is not limited by boundaries - it is only limited by the extent of the brotherhood of man - and that is ALL of us who inhabit this planet.
Click to expand...


Two separate threads now you have tried to defend abuse that is undefendable.
 
SwingsitlikeHogan said:
So all that said - what is your end game?
Click to expand...
I don't know how to break this to you, Paxo, I'm not in charge. there will be a enquiry after that who knows.
what I suspect will happen is that they will fold, they can't continue IMO. Other charities will fill the void, without the inconvenient exploitation of those they purport to be helping.

what would you do?
 
Jacko_G said:
Yes, wind it up they obviously can't be trusted. They have clearly abused there position and trust.
Click to expand...

Really - how absurd...through the bad and/or illegal behaviour of a few individuals - and a failure of corporate governance in respect of what was essentially an HR matter...albeit a very serious HR matter. And remind me who has abused their positions - other than the perpetrators of the acts. Governance failures are just that - and not abuses of position unless recommendations were overruled.

But OK then - how do we wind up Oxfam?

Do we nationalise Oxfam? - because the work they are doing can't just stop.
 
Last edited:
therod said:
I don't know how to break this to you, Paxo, I'm not in charge. there will be a enquiry after that who knows.
what I suspect will happen is that they will fold, they can't continue IMO. Other charities will fill the void, without the inconvenient exploitation of those they purport to be helping.

what would you do?
Click to expand...

Hobbit in #26 has it right for me
 
SwingsitlikeHogan said:
Hobbit in #26 has it right for me
Click to expand...
He, as always, speaks a lot of sense. However it seems that there has been an institutional cover up, therefore not only are the individuals liable for the offence(s), but the institution is liable & potentially complicit?
If it’s funding is, in part, reliant on public donations & they dry up, it will cease to be.
The investigation will shine a light on how deep this goes, but you can’t deny that as an organisation they have directly contradicted their reason for being?
 
SwingsitlikeHogan said:
Really - how absurd...through the bad and/or illegal behaviour of a few individuals - and a failure of corporate governance in respect of what was essentially an HR matter...albeit a very serious HR matter. And remind me who has abused their positions - other than the perpetrators of the acts. Governance failures are just that - and not abuses of position unless recommendations were overruled.

But OK then - how do we wind up Oxfam?

Do we nationalise Oxfam? - because the work they are doing can't just stop.
Click to expand...


Only absurd thing is you defending the abuse within this organisation. Very strange.

Enjoy defending them. I'll leave you to wrestle with your moral conscience. Me, well I'll bow out as your attitude disgusts me.
 
therod said:
He, as always, speaks a lot of sense. However it seems that there has been an institutional cover up, therefore not only are the individuals liable for the offence(s), but the institution is liable & potentially complicit?
If it’s funding is, in part, reliant on public donations & they dry up, it will cease to be.
The investigation will shine a light on how deep this goes, but you can’t deny that as an organisation they have directly contradicted their reason for being?
Click to expand...

An institutional cover up doesn't mean the organisation doesn't have the right policies, procedures and structure to do a good job. I have no problem sacking those that are guilty of that but to break up what, on paper, looks like a decent organisation just seems a bit daft. How long would it take to replace the people on the ground and put in place a structure(which would only replicate what's already in place) a new organisation?

As an aside, an insight into working in places like Angola and Nigeria from experience. Flying into Angola to work in the local hospital I was advised to have my $5 ready for the customs guy or expect to spend a couple of hours waiting to get my clothes and tools through customs. And when sending engineers out to Nigeria I was advised by our local agent that customs might need a "speedy clearance payment" for our engineers to get through customs quickly. And I know from charity workers in Angola, if you don't pay even they get a rough ride.

I tried the not paying the customs guy when I went out there, and 2 hours in an airless tin shack was my reward. I paid him the next time, ergo I am corrupt.
 
SwingsitlikeHogan said:
Corrupt to the core to me means that the organisation is corrupt at every level...that corruption is endemic and systematic throughout Oxfam. What are you looking for? What end game do you want for this 'corrupt' organisation?
Click to expand...
Remember Nick Leeson and Brings Bank?
I bad apple can and does bring an organisation down, only in this instance there is more than 1 bad apple...a lot more. Glossing over everything is tantamount to agreeing with their practices and whats happened.
The thread title tells me you think it's storm in a tea-cup, overblown and false. The fact it took you the best part of 3 pages and various responses to actually say you condemned what was happening just reinforces that view.
I'm sure you feel they are being persecuted and you have good intentions at heart, but you have to stop a cancer before it kills the body and burying ones head in the sand won't stop it.

For the record, Oxfam won't get another penny from me nor any organisation working with them. Not until I feel they have sorted out the whole sorry mess, and sadly I doubt they rreally will.
 
Hobbit said:
I tried the not paying the customs guy when I went out there, and 2 hours in an airless tin shack was my reward. I paid him the next time, ergo I am corrupt.
Click to expand...
But you accepted you did wrong, and came clean about it at an early stage. At least though you weren't asking for sexual favours to have him use his stamp:)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Slab
Course Management – What’s it to you?
2 3
Replies
56
Views
3K
Voyager EMH
Voyager EMH
Hoganman1
Hello From Across The Pond
2
Replies
35
Views
921
Hoganman1
Hoganman1
C
Another Royal Mail / Post Office scandal brewing?
Replies
7
Views
1K
clubchamp98
clubchamp98
Mudball
Suddenly the unbanked!!
2 3 4
Replies
62
Views
5K
Ross61
Ross61
H
Best player to have not won the majors
2 3
Replies
40
Views
851
kp17
kp17
Top