Oxfam Apologizes To Haiti Government Over Sex Scandal

Oxfam formally apologized to Haiti on Monday over the prostitution scandal rocking the aid charity, expressing its "shame" and vowing to do better as it handed over a damning internal report into the allegations.

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"We came here to share the report with the minister and express our shame and apologies to the Haitian government and to the Haitian people," said Simon Ticehurst, Oxfam's regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean. "We've taken lots of measures to improve internal safeguarding measures," he said following a more than two-hour meeting with Haiti's minister of planning and external cooperation, Aviol Fleurant, who had summoned the charity to explain itself.

Made public earlier in the day, Oxfam's 2011 report into the behavior of aid workers sent to Haiti following a devastating earthquake revealed that a former top official admitted to paying for sex and that three staff physically threatened a witness. The report, compiled in the year after aid workers were deployed to Haiti, revealed that seven staff were accused of using prostitutes at an Oxfam-funded residence.

Country director Roland Van Hauwermeiren admitted paying for sex and was offered a "phased and dignified exit" of resignation if he cooperated with the inquiry.

The report also said three Oxfam employees were involved in "physically threatening and intimidating" a witness who spoke to the investigators.

Four staff were fired for gross misconduct and three others, including Van Hauwermeiren, were allowed to quit.

Details of the Haiti scandal surfaced earlier this month and have engulfed Oxfam, drawing widespread condemnation and putting its funding at risk.

The charity has been suspended from bidding for new government funding until it undertakes reforms.

Oxfam has denied trying to cover up the allegations but admitted it could have been more open at the time, saying it was publishing the report "in recognition of the breach of trust that has been caused."

The Haitian government has expressed outrage and launched its own inquiry.