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THE FORMER OXFAM official at the centre of a prostitution scandal admitted to paying for sex at his charity-funded residence during an internal inquiry into the allegations, a report released today by the British organisation said.
The report also said three Oxfam employees physically threatened a witness in the investigation into alleged sexual misconduct in Haiti following the devastating 2010 earthquake there.
The charity fired four staff members for gross misconduct and allowed three others, including former country director Roland van Hauwermeiren, to resign over allegations they hired young sex workers.
The 68-year-old Belgian has denied organising orgies or visiting brothels on the Caribbean island, saying he told Oxfam he had engaged in “intimate relations some three times” at his home but did not pay for these liaisons.
A redacted copy of the 2011 report made public by the charity said Van Hauwermeiren offered to resign after admitting to investigators that he had hired sex workers at Oxfam-funded accommodation.
“During the interview the CD admitted to using prostitutes in his OGB (Oxfam Great Britain) residence,” the report said.
During the inquiry, three employees also allegedly threatened a colleague who had been interviewed by investigators after witness details were leaked.
“This incident resulted in three of the suspects… physically threatening and intimidating one of the witnesses who had been referred to in the report,” it said.
Details of action taken against the suspects included dismissal for “bullying and intimidation of OGB staff” and misuse of Oxfam computing equipment “through the access and download of pornographic and illegal material”.
‘Dignified exit’
Oxfam has unveiled an action plan to tackle sexual harassment and abuse, and agreed not to bid for any more state funds until reforms were in place.
It has faced accusations it was not transparent about the scandal, which has led to the resignation of its deputy head and high-profile ambassadors such as Desmond Tutu.
The report said the charity negotiated a month’s notice period with Van Hauwermeiren and agreed to allow him “a phased and dignified exit” if he cooperated with the rest of the investigation.
His dismissal could lead to “potentially serious implications for the programme, affiliate relationships and the rest of the investigation”, it said.
The report said Oxfam officials had received an email in July that year alerting them to alleged sexual exploitation, fraud, negligence and nepotism during relief efforts.
It concluded that the inquiry found no substantial evidence of fraud, nepotism or hiring underage sex workers, “although it cannot be ruled out that any of the prostitutes were underage”.
The charity said it had released the report “to be as transparent as possible about the decisions made during the investigation and in recognition of the breach of trust that has been caused”.
Van Hauwermeiren said in a letter published by Belgian media last week that he had not visited any brothels, nightclubs or bars in Haiti.
“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 wrote.
In the letter he said he told Oxfam he had sexual relations with an “honourable, mature woman” and did not give her any money, but added he was however “deeply ashamed” of the incident.
Oxfam said it had passed the names of the seven men accused of sexual misconduct to relevant authorities and has shared an unredacted version of the report with the Haitian ambassador in London.
It added it would give a copy of the report to the Haitian government, which has said it would open a probe into the scandal, in a meeting planned for this morning.
Call it what you like, it’ll still be the same old dinosaur with the same terrible attitude to competition and customers alike.
10yrs with sky. 1 phone call to customer care. 6mths with Eircom, over 25 calls and 10 different engineers have called to the house. Most are from companies where the work has been sub contracted to them. All are as useless as the last. Sorry I ever left sky.
The best those over paid Gob**ites can come up with is a rebrand !! Huw about not leaving your customers hanging on the line for 2hrs when they ring up to report a fault !!!
Messed about by so call customer care, Moved to UPC 1 year ago no issues.
It’s alright if your able to get upc , but not all of Ireland is covered.
just wait till you try to cancel. atrocious service. look at the Twitter
Eircom are a joke. Two complaints to Comreg regarding there shabby broadband. Moved to SKY and no problems with my broadband since. People are sick to the back teeth of companies like Eircom with their half price offers for their half baked services.
the ‘Only’ ‘Free’ ‘Just’ services. be sick of them. nothing is just, only, free. its all crap.
look rebranding wont change anything bar the name…in general “if it looks like sh!t smells like sh!t its usually sh!t”
The telecoms regulator seems pretty useless and overwhelmed by everything
They need to take firm action again Eircom when they mess their customers around
Only way to change the Eircom culture
left sky a few years ago to join eircom. what a mistake. rejoined sky again recently. Eircoms customer service was brutal. No manners, unprofessional and didn’t give a toss. sky might be more expensive but the quality is second to none. Never again using eircom
You can put a fairy on it and cover it in lights, but it’s still a tree.
I’m sure it will be a suitably shite branding effort by a bad marketing team that will waste money, pat themselves on the back and push the company further into the debt.
The creation of eMobile to differentiate it from Meteors downmarket image had to be the worse, least creative, no clear message, creation of a brand that just wasted masses of cash…
Sooo glad to be away from eircom. Ever since I’d been with them there’s been nothing but problems.
A turd in a tuxedo is still a turd.
One of the worst companies i ve ever dealth with.
The area where my parents live was supposed to get efiber in January, then June, then July, now September! They throttled the line into the exchange and did sod all about another exchange even though they knew there was a problem. Sky were more than helpful in trying to sort out speed issues but couldn’t do that much because Eircom ultimately run the lines. The biggest holdup to top rate broadband in this country is Eircom who have held us back by years. If you live in a big city or town you are sorted, the rest of the country doesn’t matter in Eircoms eyes.
I will be rebranding my anger and disdain in response.
Any telecoms company that offers a service that runs 24 hours a day, ie. Broadband, should have a 24hour customer care line, with people who can speak clear English.
All operators resell Eircom lines, so it all comes back in the end
Sky use BT Ireland to provide their service but in the end its Eircom who service the call.
No matter what you call it, it’s still the same shite, never have and never will use eircon
Eir is the new brand name.
Lennie – surely it couldn’t be that corny?? Eir?
has nobody told them that people read the small print now? how can people come out of a recession with their wages still cut in s*** and ye expect us to pay your overpriced ripoff service? i mean €80 for 2 months tv/broadband, thats insane. change your name, do what ye like, your marketing people are deluded if they think a name change can change peoples will to spend what they don’t have.
Their marketing departments have always been deluded, you see what passes for advertising or customer promotions with those guys? They think this stuff is dynamite.. Only a deluded person could ever think that.
Answer then better to improve there broadband services rather than pay millions on new logo .Ask some them engineers we can’t understand when we ring with problem to give it a new name then no one will know who to blame then because no can every make out there saying.
Are you sure it’s not the customer service people that can’t understand what YOU’RE saying?
The government needs to step in and separate Eircom the service provider from Eircom the engineering and line installers. They can’t be trusted to install lines and do service calls for other operators, they’ve been shown to give priority to their own customers first. There needs to be a completely independent engineer company that can handle service call outs and line installs for all the operators without giving priority or just being flat out sh!t
Changing the brand won’t make a fig of a difference. A brand change is not a magic wand. You’ve got to fix the problems first, then when you’re beginning to operate properly you can begin to think about a brand change.
Eircom have many issues to sort out. The company should be ashamed of itself that it allowed the company to sink so low. Very very bad management obviously.
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