The Associated Press news agency has recently reported that the money spent by World Health Organization (WHO) on Public Health problems like AIDS and Ebola is far less than what it actually spent for Travel purposes. The news agency has also stated that nearly $200 million were spent on travel in the past two years by WHO.
The Associated Press further said that the staff and members of the organization continue to break the rules outlined and tend to book business class tickets on flights and five-star hotel rooms. While the organization continues to spend money on travel, they keep asking for more funds to look into the major health problems across the world.
Allegations against Margaret Chan of WHO
The news agency has said without naming the sources that Margaret Chan spent nearly $370,000 on travel alone in 2015 which is really a big number. However, WHO has denied the allegations against Chan calling them baseless and say they are without any merit. They further backed Chan saying that she has never violated the rules and travel policies of WHO.
WHO in their official statement to Al Jazeera has said, “Travelling is one of the important aspects of WHO and most of the times it requires the experts to travel to a common place for a meeting on global health crisis or to a particular location to analyze and provide support on the public health problems.” The organization has also said that with over 7000 employees worldwide, it spends nearly half of its travel cost on its staff.
What was the amount spent by WHO on travel and major diseases?
The Associated Press upon collecting more information from trusted sources has reported the following information. The WHO has spent nearly $200 million and $234 million on travel alone for the years 2016 and 2015 respectively. The money spent on major diseases like AIDS and hepatitis for the year 2016 accounts for only $71 million.
In addition to this, it has spent $59 million on tuberculosis and $61 million on malaria. The WHO gets an annual budget of $2 billion from the United Nations, from which it has to look after all its expenses. The news agency has also said that out of the seven departments in WHO headquarters in Geneva, only two have acheived their targets.
If WHO does not take appropriate steps to counter their travel expenses, then they would be facing a major blow in their next round of fundraising. When the news agency got in touch with the director of Global Health Institute at Harvard University, Dr. Ashish Jha, he warned that there will be difficulties for WHO in their next funding appeal if they are not ready to take measures to correct their expenses.
