The head of the World Health Organization’s Syria office has been accused of widespread mismanagement, including misspending donor money, plying government officials with gifts and pressing for contracts to be signed with regime officials and politicians.
Staff at the UN organisation have made numerous complaints about Dr Akjemal Magtymova, who has led WHO’s Syrian operations for almost three years, according to an investigation by the Associated Press.
The news agency was handed more than 100 documents by a whistleblower that catalogued a litany of allegations, which also included abusive behaviour and holding a lavish event while Syria’s economy was collapsing and the Covid pandemic raged.
Claims that the WHO under Magtymova curried favour with Syrian officials will prove particularly uncomfortable for the organisation, which has been widely accused of ties with leaders who use the delivery of aid as a political tool, channelling food and medicine to pro-regime communities but limiting access to opposition parts of the country.
The Associated Press accused Magtymova, a Turkmenistan national, of secretly meeting the Russian military in Syria as well as maintaining close contact with Syrian officials. Russia has been largely responsible for saving Bashar al-Assad on Syria’s battlefields and has been outspoken on aid, insisting that it be delivered through the central government, which then decides what is distributed to areas that opposed the Syrian leader.
Syrian officials, however, have frequently been accused of diverting food and other supplies through companies that they run and weaponising delivery by making it contingent on political favours or loyalty pledges.
Though complaints about the aid process being politicised are not limited to the UN, they have been frequently directed at the global body over the course of the Syrian war. UN staff have regularly protested about aid being permitted to be delivered only through a “relevant authority”, which in the case of Syria means the central government. But the mandate ignores up to 5 million people in the north of the country, many of whom had fled fighting or been forced into exile after surrender deals.
Even with its forces increasingly bogged down in Ukraine, Moscow retains influence in how Syria is governed. It, too, has been accused of taking a financial stake in aid delivery.
One letter of complaint cited by the Associated Press says: “Dr Akjemal’s aggressive and abusive actions are negatively impacting WHO’s performance to support Syrian people. Vulnerable Syrian people are losing a lot due to favouritism, frauds and scandals instigated and supported by Dr Akjemal, which is breaking all trust [and] pushing donors away.”
Other complaints accuse WHO of hiring incompetent relatives of Syrian officials to work on aid programmes. Some of the officials have been accused of human rights violations.
Magtymova was placed on leave earlier this year and is understood to be receiving a salary while an extensive investigation into the conduct of the organisation under her watch continues. WHO said it was reviewing charges and had obtained external investigators.
Magtymova declined to respond to questions about the allegations. She told the Associated Press that she was prohibited from replying to its inquiries and described the allegations against her as defamatory.
