The World Health Organization nearly spent more money on travel last year than its combined assistance programs to fight disease.
WHO, the United Nations health agency, spent $201 million in travel costs for its 7,000 staffers in 2016, while the same year the organization spent $213.5 million in combined programs for AIDS, hepatitis, malaria, tuberculosis, mental health, and substance abuse, according to internal documents obtained by the Associated Press.
Employees would often travel first-class and stay at luxurious hotels, breaking rules intended to curb exorbitant travel costs.
During the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014, the man who directed the agency's response, Dr. Bruce Aylward, spent $400,000 in travel expenses during the crisis alone. Staffers would often visit clinics by helicopter rather than by jeep over muddy roads.
In comparison, Doctors Without Borders, another international aid agency, spent $43 million on travel for its 37,000 aid workers; UNICEF spent $140 million on global travel for its 13,000 staffers in 2016.