Chief Executive Officer of Oxfam, Mark Goldring, is being investigated over his handling of a sexual assault case involving its former Nigerian director, Lesley Agams.
Miss Agams, who was the charity’s country director in Nigeria, was dismissed in 2010, three months after she accused a senior manager of sexually assaulting her at a hotel during an Oxfam conference in Oxford, United Kingdom.
Oxfam staff had wanted an independent inquiry but Mr Goldring held a personal review. He apologised to Miss Agams, 51, for what she had gone through but stood by the decision to sack her.
The sacking of Miss Agams resurfaced after a complaint was lodged against Mr Goldring by Marc Wegerif, 49, who resigned as a senior policy official at Oxfam two months ago. He told The Times that the charity had “discredited Miss Agams without justification”.
He said: “The decisions on how to respond to Lesley’s case were made by senior leadership team without the involvement of the safeguarding team or the gender justice teams. I found it amazing Mark Goldring could acknowledge that she was sacked by the person she accused of assaulting her but then conclude that there was nothing wrong with that.”
The incident will form part of the Charity Commission’s inquiry into Oxfam that was announced last week following revelations that it had covered up allegations of sexual misconduct by staff in Haiti in 2010.
Goldring, 61, believes the scale and intensity of the criticism against his organisation in the wake of claims its workers used prostitutes in Haiti is out of proportion to its level of culpability.
Oxfam’s work in Nigeria focuses on economic justice and improving livelihoods, gender justice and female leadership, good governance and the Niger Delta, and disaster risk reduction.
A statement on its website says, “In Nigeria, we are providing people with emergency food, clean drinking water and improved sanitation. We are distributing emergency shelters and cooking equipment, as well as seeds and tools to help traders and farmers get back on their feet.”
Oxfam admits it did not handle Agams’ sexual assault allegation properly but insists her dismissal was separate and legal under Nigerian employment law.
