Anti-corruption watchdog hit by legal row over staff ‘bullying’

A leading anti-corruption organisation – which receives millions of pounds from the government to promote integrity initiatives around the world – is locked in a damaging row with its former managing director, who claims she was bullied out of her job.

Transparency International (TI), which describes itself as a movement with a remit to “hold the powerful to account”, has been rocked by claims involving the former managing director of its global secretariat, Patricia Moreira, who was herself the subject of bullying allegations.

A report from a law firm, published last week, found no evidence to substantiate the claims. However, it concluded the sending of disciplinary letters to a staff member in one particular, separate case had resulted in the creation of a “hostile and offensive environment”, a finding Moreira rejects.

TI’s own ethics panel also conceded that there were problems with the way Moreira ran the secretariat, TI’s global coordinating arm which operates separately from its national chapters, including Transparency International UK.

It called for the secretariat to introduce a new integrity system and acknowledged there had been “an urgent need for more communication, transparency and professionalism” within the organisation.

But now, in a highly embarrassing move, Moreira has accused the leading NGO of flouting its commitment to transparency by failing to conduct a sufficiently wide investigation into problems within the organisation.

In response, TI said it “has no further comments on the investigation at this time”.

Trouble began after Moreira became managing director in October 2017, with a mandate to restructure TI’s secretariat. Her efforts were met with claims that she promoted a culture that enabled bullying and silenced critical voices.

After the allegations surfaced in the media, the TI board appointed the law firm Taylor Wessing to investigate.

Last December, Moreira, who declined to talk to the Observer, submitted her own complaint to the investigators, alleging bullying and harassment from board members.

TI said: “The investigation has concluded. The [ethics] panel will report to TI’s annual membership meeting, to whom the board is accountable. At this time, TI is unable to comment further on the investigation.”

The board dismissed Moreira in February as relations between both sides deteriorated.

A friend said: “She feels extremely angry, not just at the way she and her staff have been treated but at the hypocrisy TI is displaying as an organisation committed to accountability and fair trial.

“TI tried to persuade Patricia to take a payoff in exchange for dropping her formal complaint against the board. She refused, and walked away from negotiations. She plans to sue TI for unfair dismissal, and wants to see her bullying complaints properly investigated by an independent party.”

TI said: “Patricia Moreira’s position as managing director ended following intensive discussions with the board of directors on the operating structures of the TI secretariat, during which it turned out that the two parties had different visions for the effective management of the organisation.”

The Taylor Wessing report found that many of TI’s staff “perceived a lack of transparency” within the secretariat when it was being run by Moreira. It said they “felt excluded from decision-making processes, or felt unsafe in reporting lines and that their complaints have not been dealt with by senior management”.

Moreira insists there is no evidence for the claims which she says were never put to her.

In internal correspondence seen by the Observer, Moreira insists that the secretariat’s management problems existed before she took over and claims that she was the “person most persistently engaged in trying to free the organisation of its toxic culture”.

TI said it had been working hard to address the problems identified in the reports and had implemented the new integrity initiative.

However, the row could damage the Berlin-based organisation’s hopes of securing further funding from the Department for International Development, which has given it almost £5m since 2017.

Following the Oxfam sexual exploitation scandal in 2018, DfID wrote to civil society groups explaining “it is crucial that any organisation in receipt of DfID funds should ensure not only that they have safeguards in place which prevent exploitation but also the systems and the organisational culture needed to deal with and report incidents when they do occur”.