Oxfam International’s executive director Winnie Byanyima said it would “do justice” and “atone for the past”.

She invited victims to come forward “for justice to be done” for them, saying she was “here for all the women who have been abused”.

The British charity has faced criticism over the way it handled claims staff hired prostitutes in Haiti in 2011.

She said the organisation was “hurt”, but added: “There is no way this organisation can die… the world needs it.”

Ms Byanyima, the most senior Oxfam executive to speak on the issue, said she first heard of the controversy after news reports last week.

In an interview with the BBC’s diplomatic correspondent James Landale, she switched to speaking in a Ugandan language to make an apology: “From the bottom of my heart forgive us, forgive Oxfam.”

She admitted she could not guarantee there were not sex offenders currently working at the organisation but vowed Oxfam would “build a new culture that doesn’t tolerate that behaviour”.

Charity reform

She explained that the reforms that will take place at Oxfam will include:

• setting up a high-level independent commission that will look into culture and practices at the organisation, with a mandate to investigate past and current claims of sexual exploitation
• more than tripling the budget for the charity’s safeguarding team, and doubling the number of staff working in the department
• setting up a global database of accredited referees to ensure sex offenders cannot falsify references and reoffend at other charities
• making the organisation’s “whistleblowing mechanism” external, safe and confidential

Earlier this month news reports said that during a humanitarian mission in Haiti in 2011, the charity’s country director Roland van Hauwermeiren hired prostitutes at a villa paid for by Oxfam.

Roland Van Hauwermeiren worked in Chad from 2006-09 before going to Haiti in 2010

Mr Van Hauwermeiren, who left Oxfam in 2011 amid a sexual misconduct inquiry, has denied hiring prostitutes but said he had “intimate relations” with a woman who was “not a prostitute”.

Oxfam had staff working in Haiti following the earthquake in the country which killed about 200,000 people in 2010.

As a result of the revelation, the charity has faced staunch criticism from the British government and the Haitian president.

International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt has threatened to cut the charity’s government funding, which was £32m last year.

The charity has also lost a number of celebrity ambassadors including Good Will Hunting actress Minnie Driver, and Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Ms Byanyima said she was sad to lose ambassadors she “respects so much”, but added: “What hurts me most is out there in Haiti, there are poor women who have been abused and have not received justice.”

The Charity Commission is to launch a full inquiry into Oxfam as it has concerns the organisation may not have “full and frankly disclosed material details” about the Haiti sex scandal.

Archbishop Tutu is “deeply disappointed” over alleged misconduct at Oxfam

On Thursday a new allegation came to light that a worker fired by Oxfam over sexual misconduct allegations in Haiti was rehired later the same year by the charity.

Oxfam said its decision to rehire the man in Ethiopia was a “serious error”.

Oxfam has almost 10,000 staff working in more than 90 countries across the globe.

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Source: BBC

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The findings come as the tax affairs of major multinationals are under the microscope after revelations in the LuxLeaks and Panama Papers scandals showed the methods used by big companies to avoid paying tax.

“New EU transparency rules give us a glimpse into the tax affairs of Europe’s biggest banks and it’s not a pretty sight,” said Manon Aubry, a tax specialist at Oxfam.

“Governments must change the rules to prevent banks and other big businesses using tax havens to dodge taxes or help their clients dodge taxes,” she said.

The report said that tax havens account for 26 percent of the profits made by the 20 biggest banks in Europe, adding up to an estimated 25 billion euros ($27 billion).

By example, Barclays, Europe’s fifth biggest bank in 2015, booked profits of 557 million euros in Luxembourg and paid only one million euros in taxes, an effective tax rate of 0.2 percent.

The report also uncovered that European banks posted 628 million euros in profit in tax havens where they employed zero staff.

In the Cayman Islands for example, France’s BNP Paribas booked 134 million euros in profit tax free without a single employee present.

Other banks reported profits in tax havens while reporting losses elsewhere.

In 2015, Deutsche Bank registered no or low profits in several major markets, while booking almost 2 billion euros of profits in tax havens.

Oxfam uncovered the data using new EU legislation that requires banks to report their profit on a country by country basis.

The law is intended to stop big banks from artificially shifting their profits to low tax wealth centres with very low, or zero, corporate tax rates.

“These rules must now be extended to ensure all large corporations provide financial reports for every country where they operate,” Aubry said.

“This will make it easier for all countries – including the poorest – to establish if companies are paying their fair share of tax or not,” she said.

Luxembourg and Ireland were the most favoured tax havens.

Europe’s 20 biggest banks posted more profits in the small EU duchy of Luxembourg than they did in the UK, Sweden and Germany combined.

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Source: AFP

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