Oxfam U.K.’s deputy chief executive resigns in Haiti scandal
LONDON — Oxfam’s deputy chief executive in the United Kingdom resigned Monday, saying she took “full responsibility” for failing to act immediately in the sexual misconduct scandal involving the charity’s workers in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake.
Penny Lawrence, Oxfam program director at the time, said she was “ashamed that this happened on my watch.”
At an emergency meeting Monday with British government officials, Oxfam’s leaders “also made a full and unqualified apology” and spoke of a “deep sense of disgrace and shame,” said British Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt.
Oxfam chief executive Mark Goldring and trustee chairwoman Caroline Thomson were at the meeting. Mordaunt had threatened to pull public funding from Oxfam unless the charity revealed everything it knows about the Haiti allegations.