Days after Oxfam International executive director Winnie Byanyima apologised over the British charity’s handling of a prostitution scandal in Haiti, Oxfam’s chief executive Mark Goldring has said he is also sorry for the damage the charity has done to the people of Haiti and the wider efforts of aid workers.
About 7,000 people have stopped making regular donations to the charity in the ten days since it emerged some of its staff used prostitutes in Haiti, MPs have heard.
Mr Goldring is facing questions from MPs on the International Development Committee about the sexual misconduct of some staff after the 2010 Haiti earthquake.
The scandal is wide-reaching, with a high-ranking former Oxfam staffer accused of paying for prostitutes while working in Chad, and other members of his staff are alleged to have used prostitutes in the charity’s premises.
He said today: ‘‘I am sorry, we are sorry, for the damage Oxfam has done both to the people of Haiti but also to wider efforts for aid and development by possibly undermining public support.”
Mr Goldring also apologised for remarks made about murdering babies in cots which he made in defending Oxfam.
In an interview with British newspaper The Guardian last week, he said: “The intensity and ferocity of the attack makes you wonder, what did we do? We murdered babies in their cots?”
Mr Goldring, who joined the charity in 2013, said he was “deeply sorry” for the comments that he had made while “under stress”.
