The threat of disease is one that we constantly battle.
Thankfully there are organizations that bring needed aid and care to people suffering from deadly illnesses. Often they travel to the third world to treat preventable diseases and deal with outbreaks.
But all that aid costs money—often taxpayer money. So, we demand that these groups spend that money wisely, to do the most good.
Except it turns out that the biggest health organization might be squandering much of our funds. Not on life-saving cures, but extravagant travel.
From IJR:
The AP reported that the health organization spends about $200 million a year in travel expenses, which is just shy of being equivalent to the funding of four major global diseases.
The AP compared WHO’s expenses and staff size with Doctors Without Borders and the U.N.’s children’s agency, UNICEF.
Doctors Without Borders has over five times the amount of aid workers but spends about 80 percent less for travel.
A video obtained by the AP captured WHO Director of Finance Nick Jeffreys claiming that despite having travel regulations, staffers can “manipulate” their travel. He noted that there was no way to know the cheapest ticket was being booked or that the travel was necessary…
The AP reported that confidential documents reveal WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan spent over $370,000 in travel expenses in 2015 — the same year as the Ebola outbreak.
Somehow Doctors Without Borders — a charitable organization — spends less but is more effective than WHO. Wanna know why that is? Because a group that receives voluntary donations needs to use every last penny wisely. They can’t afford to waste it.
WHO on the other hand, gets money from taxpayers. They don’t need any accountability or budgeting, because they can just steal — I mean — take more cash via taxes.
In much the same way your government wastes tax dollars, WHO is wasting money that could otherwise be saving lives.
Even their own leaders claim it’s impossible to know if the money is being wasted. That’s a big copout. Here’s a solution: deprive WHO of taxpayer funds. Force them to raise money via donations like Doctors Without Borders and other groups. Then they’ll suddenly figure out how to buy the cheapest tickets!
Just an idea.
Source: IJR
[playbuzz-item item=”6aec0171-ee58-4e79-a441-e8fbce26bedd” format=”story”]
