The charities make up the Disasters Emergency Committee, a 50 year old group which comes together to coordinate their work at times of worldwide tragedy. Writing on telegraph.co.uk, Justine Greening, the International Development secretary, said the Telegraph's revelations, which she was briefed on last week, were "a clarion call for charities to be more open about value for money." She said: "As Government has, it is time for them to grasp the nettle on transparency and value for money. I would like to see top British charities now leading the way by committing to the same levels of transparency. This Government made transparency a key theme of the G8 Lough Erne Summit because we know that transparency can help root out corruption and alongside that help create global prosperity. She added: "In Government we have opened up the books to improve efficiency and we believe that open data can improve delivery and give people more choice on services." Oxfam defended its pay policy and said Lady Stocking, who left in February, "could expect to earn at least £75,000 more for a comparable job in the private sector." A spokesman said: "We pay our chief executive less than other charities of similar size and scope - and considerably less than someone could expect to earn running an organisation of this size and complexity in the private sector. Our market research showed that, in the same year, the median pay of other large charity chief executives was £135,700. Sir Stephen Bubb, chief executive of charity leaders organisation Acevo, said that executive pay at top charities was "not excessive" and that criticism from the charities" regulator was "deeply unhelpful." Sir Stephen said the average salary for a charity chief executive was £58,000, adding: "The big national and international charities are very demanding jobs and we need to attract the best talent to those jobs and that's what we do." Sir Stephen denied that the high salaries could put off donors.