AP Exclusive: UN whistleblower targeted in misconduct probe

A year after claims of sexual assault and harassment rocked the UN agency that fights HIV, UNAIDS looked like it might be on the mend, the top deputy facing the allegations had departed.

The leader who presided over the troubled institution announced plans to bow out early and managers vowed to correct the agency's "toxic" atmosphere in a scathing probe.

But the upheaval is not over.

Confidential documents obtained by The Associated Press show UNAIDS is grappling with previously unreported allegations of financial and sexual misconduct involving Martina Brostrom, who went public last March with claims that one of the organization's top officials assaulted her in 2015.

As part of a preliminary internal inquiry, investigators for the World Health Organisation, which oversees UNAIDS, wrote that they had found "evidence" that Brostrom and her former supervisor may have taken part in "fraudulent practices and misuse of travel funds," the documents show.

The inquiry was put on hold in late 2016 after Brostrom asked for whistleblower protection in a formal complaint to UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe alleging that Dr Luiz Loures, one of Sidibe's deputies, forcibly kissed her and tried to drag her out of a Bangkok hotel elevator.

In a statement that did not identify Brostrom by name, UNAIDS said the investigation was suspended "to safeguard the integrity of a potentially related sexual harassment case". Edward Flaherty, a lawyer for Brostrom, said she had no knowledge of any such inquiry.

"She is unaware, and has not been advised, of any such investigation and denies any assertion of impropriety," Flaherty said of the Swedish employee.

The ongoing turmoil is a damaging distraction for an agency at the centre of multibillion-dollar, taxpayer-funded UN efforts to end the global AIDS epidemic by 2030. The virus affects more than 37 million people worldwide and kills more than 900,000 people every year.

The allegations of sexual assault and managerial mismanagement prompted Sweden to announce last year it would suspend its funding to the agency. The Scandinavian country is UNAIDS' No. 2 donor, providing more than USD 30 million in 2017.

"Anytime there are claims about misuse of funds, it's incredibly damaging to an agency's credibility," said Devi Sridhar, a professor of global public health at the University of Edinburgh.

"UNAIDS goes into countries to protect those who are marginalised, including sex workers, drug users, poor communities to advocate for AIDS prevention and treatment," Sridhar said.

"How can they do that when it's widely known there's an internal culture that permits bad behaviour?"
She said she became "the victim of a malicious and anonymous defamation campaign in early 2016."