The chief executive of Oxfam has hit back at the storm of criticism surrounding the charity’s sex exploitation scandal in Haiti, claiming attacks on the organisation are “out of proportion to the level of culpability”.

In an interview with the Guardian, Mark Goldring repeated his apology for Oxfam’s failings and acknowledged that major reforms were needed. But warning that the controversy has already affected vital donations, he accused critics of “gunning” for the charity and said some were motivated in part by an anti-aid agenda.

“The intensity and the ferocity of the attack makes you wonder, what did we do?” he said.

“We murdered babies in their cots? Certainly, the scale and the intensity of the attacks feels out of proportion to the level of culpability. I struggle to understand it. You think, ‘My God, there’s something going on there.’”

Goldring acknowledged that his comments could be used to inflict more damage on the embattled charity, saying: “Anything we say is being manipulated... even apologies only make matters worse.”

The interview, published on Friday afternoon followed a promise by Oxfam to publish a 2011 internal investigation into staff involved in sexual and other misconduct in Haiti as soon as possible. The organisation has said that the names of the men involved have already been shared with the Haitian authorities.

The head of Oxfam International, Winnie Byanyima, has announced a wide-ranging reform plan – including an independent commission to review Oxfam’s culture and practices – and warned that what happened in Haiti “is a stain on Oxfam that will shame us for years”.

In a series of tweets on Friday, Oxfam laid out other planned reforms, including new funding for safeguarding measures and a crackdown on references issued to former staff.

Today we announced our plan of action to strengthen safeguarding systems across the organisation and stamp out abuse, including asking leading women's rights experts to lead an urgent independent review of our culture and practices. The wide-ranging package of measures includes: — Oxfam (@oxfamgb) February 16, 2018

On Friday night, international development secretary, Penny Mordaunt, said Oxfam had agreed to withdraw from bidding for funding from the Department for International Development until the government was satisfied it could meet the “high standards” expected.

Oxfam has this week sought to persuade the public that it is taking responsibility for what went wrong with its management and safeguarding procedures in Haiti. On Thursday, Goldring published an open letter of apology over misconduct in Haiti and Chad, saying: “I know that this apology is by no means enough but I want to offer it unreservedly … I am so sorry.”

Goldring, who revealed in his interview that he also apologised to the Haitian ambassador on Thursday, has agreed to visit the country soon to explore ways to make practical restitution. But he also suggested that the organisation had been made a whipping boy in some respects.

Roland van Hauwermeiren, former Oxfam director for Haiti.

Goldring said that attempts to explain decisions taken over the departure of Roland van Hauwermeiren, Oxfam’s former country chief in Haiti, following allegations that he paid for intercourse and was involved in sex parties in the country, had been “branded as an excuse”.

“Anything we say is being manipulated,” said Goldring. “I said on TV: ‘Yes, we could have done some things faster’, and all of a sudden we’ve got two former ministers calling for my resignation. What I felt really clearly is many people haven’t wanted to listen to explanations.”

Among those Goldring accuses of a lack of balance is Oxfam’s former head of global safeguarding, Helen Evans, who has been widely quoted criticising Oxfam’s failings.

Saying that she should not have gone public with her concerns, Goldring added: “I think [her criticism] was very unbalanced, and ironically didn’t give enough credit to the very work that she promoted. I don’t think she gives either herself or Oxfam enough credit for what was actually steady improvement.”

Conceding that the scandal threatened to have a “substantial effect on public confidence, which would affect public donations”, he said it was inevitable some corporate partners would sever their links.

On the question of references provided for one of the men dismissed after Oxfam’s inquiry into what happened in Haiti, he said that while one of the sacked men did get a reference “from Oxfam”, it was written by another former employee fired over the sex ring.

Defending Oxfam’s disclosure of the dismissals, but not the actual reasons, he said: “I believe it was done in good faith to try and balance being transparent and protecting Oxfam’s work.

“I don’t think [Oxfam] wanted to promote a sensation and damage the delivery of that programme. With hindsight, we should have said more. I’ve been clear about that right since this broke.

“But if Oxfam’s business is to help save lives, if people are motivated by protecting Oxfam, they’re motivated by actually delivering that. If your organisation is there to actually help make the world a better place, I can see why people thought this was the right thing to do.”

Commenting separately on Friday on the reform proposals outlined by Byanyima, Goldring added: “What happened was a disgrace and we are absolutely committed to rooting out abuse across the organisation.

“We are doubling the number of people who work on safeguarding to make sure we are living up to our responsibility to protect staff, volunteers and the communities we support around the world.

“An independent commission is being established which will review our entire operations and tell us what we need to change about our culture and practices.”

