WHO travel costs ‘outstrips’ disease budget

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WHO travel costs ‘outstrips’ disease budget

1:27 CAT | 22 May 2017

Reuters (File photo) / WHO denied allegations against its director general, Margaret Chan

UN health agency is struggling to reign in travel costs even as it pleads for funds for health crises, report says.

The World Health Organisation routinely spends about $200m a year on travel, a figure that far exceeds what it spends on public health problems such as AIDS, the Associated Press (AP) news agency has reported.

Citing internal documents, AP reported on Sunday that the UN health agency is struggling to reign in travel expenses even as it pleads for more money to fund its responses to global health crises.

Despite introducing controls, members of staff have been breaking rules by booking business class airplane tickets and rooms in five-star hotels, AP reported.

Margaret Chan, the WHO’s director general, came under heavy criticism, with AP citing three unnamed sources who said she often travelled first class. She is reported to have spent $370,000 on travel in 2015.

The WHO has denied the allegations against Chan, saying she “strictly abides by WHO’s travel policies”.

The agency also said in a statement on Sunday: “Travel is an essential aspect of WHO’s global health work – convening experts for collective decision-making on health interventions or travelling experts anywhere in the world that requires technical assistance for global health.”

The WHO, which employs 7,000 people worldwide, said that less than half of its travel costs were on its staff.

Rules ignored

The UN allocates an annual budget of $2bn for the WHO. In 2016, the agency spent $200m on travel. In 2015, transport expenses stood at $234m – because of a deadly Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

In comparison, AP said WHO spent about US$71m on AIDS and hepatitis last year. On malaria, it spent $61m, and to slow tuberculosis, it invested $59m.

According to the AP, some officials have complained internally over the WHO’s exorbitant travel costs, but members of staff were still openly ignoring the rules.

An internal analysis, obtained by the news agency, found that only two of seven departments at WHO’s Geneva met their targets, and concluded the compliance rate for booking travel in advance was between 28 and 59 percent.

WHO’s transport costs were much higher than that of other comparable aid agencies, AP continued.

With 37,000 aid workers, Doctors Without Borders spends about $43m on travel per year, while the UN children’s agency UNICEF, which employs 13,000 people, said it spent $140m on global travel in 2016.

Experts who spoke to AP warned that WHO’s travel spending could have significant consequences for fundraising.

Dr Ashish Jha, the director of the Global Health Institute at Harvard University, said: “If WHO is not being as lean as possible, it’s going to be hard to remain credible when they make their next funding appeal.”

The organisation has asked for about $100m to save people in Somalia from an ongoing drought and requested $126m to stop the humanitarian crisis in Yemen.

Source: Al Jazeera