The WHO’s top director in the western Pacific, Takeshi Kasai, has been indefinitely removed from his post, internal correspondence obtained by reporters showed.
Kasai’s removal comes months after an investigation by The Associated Press showed that dozens of staffers accused him of racist, abusive and unethical behavior.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in an e-mail on Friday told staff in the western Pacific region that Kasai was “on leave.”
He did not elaborate further.
WHO deputy director-general Zsuzsanna Jakab was scheduled to arrive yesterday in Manila, the regional headquarters of the WHO, to “ensure business continuity,” Tedros said.
Two senior WHO officials who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak to the press, said that Kasai had been put on extended administrative leave after internal investigators substantiated some of the misconduct complaints.
In a statement, the WHO said that it was unknown how long Kasai would be away.
The UN agency said that the investigation into him was continuing and that it was believed to be the first time a regional director had been relieved of their duties.
Kasai did not respond to requests for comment, but previously denied he used racist language or acted unprofessionally.
In January, the AP reported that more than 30 unidentified staffers sent a complaint to senior WHO leadership and members of the organization’s executive board, alleging that Kasai had created a “toxic atmosphere” in WHO’s offices across the western Pacific.
Documents and recordings showed Kasai made racist remarks to his staff and blamed the rise of COVID-19 in some Pacific countries on their “lack of capacity due to their inferior culture, race and socioeconomics level.”
Several WHO staffers working under Kasai said that he improperly shared sensitive vaccine information to help Japan, his home country, score political points with its donations.
Days after the report, Tedros announced that an internal probe into Kasai had begun.
However, WHO staffers several months later said that Kasai was manipulating the investigation.
In a letter sent to the executive board, the staffers wrote that Kasai had ordered senior managers to destroy incriminating documents and instructed IT staff “to monitor e-mails of all the staff members.”
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