[A2k] Financial Times: Wipo chief faces calls to resign over age error

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

--
[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/279a5436-6bc9-11dc-863b-0000779fd2ac.html

Wipo chief faces calls to resign over age error

By Frances Williamsin Geneva

Published: September 26 2007 03:00 | Last updated: September 26 2007
03:00

Industrialised countries led by the US, the European Union and
Switzerland have called for the resignation of Kamil Idris, head of the
World Intellectual Property Organisation, in the wake of scandals that,
the EU says, have "compromised" his leadership.

Mr Idris, a Sudanese national who has the backing of African nations,
has vigorously rejected the resignation demand, alleging a deliberate
campaign of harassment and destabilisation over the past three years.

The stand-off paralysed the first day of Wipo's an-nual meeting on
Monday, after the African group re-jected a US attempt to put on the
agenda an internal auditor's report into a move by Mr Idris last year
to "correct" his year of birth in Wipo records from 1945 to 1954.

A compromise brokered yesterday allowed the meeting to go ahead with
its substantive business while a selected group of countries discussed
behind the scenes how to handle the report.

The widely leaked report says Mr Idris, who joined Wipo in 1983 and
became director-general in 1997, broke UN financial and integrity rules
by allowing the "alleged error" to go uncorrected for 23 years.
Originally claiming to be nine years older than he was may have helped
Mr Idris obtain his first Wipo job and advance his Wipo career, the
report noted.

Mr Idris, who has already said he will not stand again for
director-general when his second term ends in 2009, denies any
wrongdoing.

Western diplomats said the US, the EU, Switzerland and Japan separately
saw Mr Idris last week to urge him to resign. The EU's formal demarche,
which the FT has seen, calls on Mr Idris to step down in the best
interests of the organisation.

"The EU urges you . . . to draw the only possible and dignified
conclusion in the current regrettable situation. It is time for an
early change of leadership," it says.

However, the diplomats admitted privately they did not expect Mr Idris
to go voluntarily and doubted whether, in the face of African
opposition, they could muster enough support to oust him.

Allegations of mismanagement, cronyism and financial impropriety have
swirled around Wipo and its leadership in recent years. These have
"seriously damaged morale" in the organisation, according to the US
state department.

---------------------------------
Thiru Balasubramaniam
Geneva Representative
Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)
voice +41.22.791.6727
fax +41.22.723.2988
mobile +41 76 508 0997
thiru@keionline.org
--