Oxfam pulls out of UK government bids as chief hits out

– ‘Lies and exaggerations’ –

Ministers have demanded Oxfam produce a plan on how to deal with any forthcoming allegations, that it report any staff members involved in the Haiti scandal and that it fully cooperate with the Haitian authorities.

The aid group said it would create an independent commission with the power to access records and interview staff, and impose stricter controls on employees.

It will also double the number of staff engaged in safeguarding and triple its funding in this area to more than $1 million (800,000 euros), while also increasing investment in gender training.

Oxfam fired four staff members for gross misconduct and allowed three others to resign following an internal inquiry into what happened in Haiti in 2011.

But it admitted Thursday it had rehired one of those sacked just months later.

Roland van Hauwermeiren, Oxfam’s director in Haiti at the time and one of the three who resigned from the charity, dismissed the allegations.

“I have never been into a brothel, a nightclub or a bar in that country,” the 68-year-old Belgian said in a four-page letter published on the website of Belgian VTM News.

“There were numerous men and women who tried to get into my house with all sorts of excuses to demand money, work, or to offer sexual services. But I never gave into these advances,” he said.

Van Hauwermeiren, who has taken part in an internal inquiry at the British charity, said he told Oxfam he had engaged in “intimate relations some three times” at his home.

“This was with an honourable, mature woman, who was not an earthquake victim nor a prostitute. And I did not give her any money,” he said, adding that he was, however, “deeply ashamed” of the liaison.