© Fabrice Conffrini / AFPA flag bearing the World Health Organization
The UN's World Health Organization ponies up some $200 million a year for luxury travel, including first-class tickets and posh hotels - much more than it spends on combatting AIDS, tuberculosis, or malaria, the AP has revealed.
According to internal files
obtained by the news agency, since 2013,
the World Health Organization (WHO) has allocated $803 million for travel - approximately $200 million per year. The WHO's two-billion-dollar annual budget is made up of contributions made by 194 member countries, of which the US is the largest sponsor.Last year, the WHO allocated just over $60 million to tackling malaria and $59 million to containing the spread of tuberculosis, while $71 million was spent on fighting AIDS and hepatitis. Programs aimed at containing certain diseases, such as polio, do get considerably larger funding, however, with $450 million allocated annually.
Though the organization has been struggling to achieve its goals, while at the same time appealing for more financing, its employees and top brass apparently do not shy away from booking first-class airline tickets and rooms in luxurious five-star hotels.
In particular, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan and Executive Director Bruce Aylward are first and second on the list of the agency's top spenders, according to a confidential 25-page analysis of the WHO's expenses seen by AP.
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