Bangladesh anti-corruption agency accuses WHO director of fraud

Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission has filed two cases against Saima Wazed, who currently serves as the regional director of the World Health Organization for Southeast Asia. According to local news reports, the cases were filed on Thursday in Dhaka. One of the cases alleged that Wazed provided false information in her application in 2023 for the WHO regional director position — in particular, for claiming she is an honorary specialist/expert in autism and spectrum disorder and mental health at the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University. During the race for the WHO position, allegations circulated questioning Wazed’s educational degrees. But Barry University in Florida, USA, from which she obtained graduate and postgraduate degrees, came out with a news release confirming she’s a three-time alumnus of the institution. The other case alleges that Wazed colluded with the former chair of Bangladesh’s Exim Bank, Nazrul Islam Majumdar, to get banks to contribute to the Shuchona Foundation, a nonprofit advocacy, research, and capacity-building organization specializing in neurodevelopmental disorders and mental health, which was founded and chaired by Wazed. Wazed has been under investigation since January, with the efforts appearing to aim at removing her from her position at WHO. The investigation follows last year’s ousting of Bangladesh’s former prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, who is Wazed’s mother. Devex has reached out to both WHO’s Southeast Asia regional office and WHO headquarters in Geneva regarding the cases, but has received no response as of publication.