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CAIRO: The World Health Organization says it follows “a zero-tolerance policy against all forms of corruption” amid calls for greater transparency following an Associated Press report on fraud and mismanagement marring some UN operations in the country.
WHO issued a statement Wednesday saying it has an on-going investigation into its Yemen office after an internal audit last year found that controls over administration and finances there were “unsatisfactory.”
The audit, it said, identified “conflicts of interest” and “suspected wrongdoing” among staffers in Yemen.
WHO said it “moved quickly to address audit recommendations,” appointing a new country director, hiring more experienced staff and reforming the office structure to increase accountability.
In a report Monday, the AP revealed investigations by the WHO and UNICEF into operations in Yemen. According to internal documents and interviews with current and former aid officials, some UN staffers had been involved in fraud or mismanagement profiting off the massive humanitarian aid program aimed at keeping Yemenis alive amid the country’s destructive civil war.
When asked about the AP story Tuesday, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said WHO is “taking these allegations seriously” and that “all allegations of misuse of aid need to be investigated.”
The information minister in Yemen’s internationally recognized government called on the UN to be transparent in its investigations. The government controls southern Yemen, battling with rebels known as Houthis who hold the north.
“We urge the UN to declassify these investigations ... to reveal the outcomes” to the Yemeni people, Moammar Al-Iryani wrote in a tweet this week.
A major funder of humanitarian aid to Yemen, ��������Ƶ’s King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center, also urged the UN to review its monitoring systems and “share detailed reports on its financial and accounting measures” with donors.
��������Ƶ has sent millions of dollars to help fund aid operations by the UN and other agencies in Yemen.
The kingdom is also a member of a coalition backing the government and seeking to push back the Houthi rebels, who are allied to Iran.