[Ip-health] The Star: Wipo thrown into deep crisis

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

http://thestar.com.my/columnists/story.asp?file=3D/2007/10/8/columnists/
globaltrends/19108373&sec=3DGlobal%20Trends

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Columnists > Global Trends
Monday October 8, 2007

Wipo thrown into deep crisis

GLOBAL TRENDS WITH MARTIN KHOR

The World Intellectual Property Organisation has been thrown into an
institutional crisis over allegations that its Director General engaged
in unethical activities.

THE world=92s main body dedicated to intellectual property issues has
been thrown into an institutional crisis because governments are unable
to agree on what to do about its Director General, who is alleged to be
involved in serious misconduct.

The World Intellectual Property Organisation (Wipo), a United Nations
agency based in Geneva, ended its annual General Assembly last week
without adopting its budget for the next two years, thus causing doubts
on its programmes and funding.

The wrangling on the budget was a proxy for the underlying conflict =96
how to deal with allegations that Director General Kamal Idris had for
many years misrepresented his age in order to have a better chance to
be hired by and promoted within Wipo, among other things.

An internal audit report (which is still not made public) last year
exposed irregularities about his age, and Kamal Idris himself then
revealed that his real birth year was 1954 and not 1945 that he had
used for many years.

It was a typographical error, explained the DG. But the audit report
gave details of how the wrong birth-date had been used for many years
and the benefits that were obtained from this misrepresentation.

By stating that he was older, and by implication more experienced,
Kamal Idris was able to obtain senior positions, including his present
high post, according to the allegations.

For several years now there have been accusations, some of them
published in Geneva newspapers, of possible unethical behaviour
involving the DG and other Secretariat staff.

Thus the issue of age misrepresentation was only the latest in a line
of scandals that have been reported.

Some developed countries, led by the United States and the United
Kingdom, recently called on Kamal Idris to leave his office as soon as
possible (his term expires in 2009), as his remaining would affect its
image and work.

The US wanted the internal audit report and action on it to be
discussed at the Assembly. But the Group of African countries argued
that this was premature because the report had not yet been discussed
by the Wipo audit committee.

With the whiff of crisis in the air, a small group of countries was
convened by Wipo Assembly president Nigerian ambassador Martin
Uhomoibhi to resolve this issue.

But it failed to do so. The US, backed by European countries and Japan,
wanted the audit committee to meet and present a report within two
months, and for a decision now to convene a special Wipo Assembly
session next February.

The Africans, backed by many developing countries, agreed to the audit
committee meeting and reporting speedily, but wanted any action to be
considered only after the report was issued. They were against
pre-judging the issue.

With deadlock on this issue, the developed countries then moved to
block the passing of Wipo=92s two-year budget and programme for 2008-09.

The developed countries used the fact that there could not be agreement
on another proposal (by the US and Japan to cut patent fees charged by
Wipo) to argue that Wipo=92s future revenue was not known and thus a
budget could not be approved now.

It was a barely disguised tactic to link the passing of the budget to
an outcome on the DG issue that was satisfactory to them. Since there
is no decision on the DG issue, the new budget is now blocked.

Wipo rules say that if a new budget is not approved, the organisation
can still operate using the same level of financing of the previous two
years. Thus there is no immediate threat of Wipo having to stop payment
of salary and bills and its activities. But the expansion of its
spending and activities, envisaged in the new budget, is affected.

What the developed countries achieved was to generate an atmosphere of
crisis and a mood that future activities to negotiate new treaties or
new types of activities would basically be suspended until the DG issue
was resolved.

They are likely to insist that a special Assembly session be held on
this issue. For that to happen, more and more developing countries will
have to give up their defence of the DG.

Delegates from Africa, Asia and Latin America say that they are not
defending the DG, but that he, like anyone else, deserves fair
treatment and due process, and that there should not be a presumption
of a need for drastic action until the matter is discussed at the audit
committee.

They also resent the thinly veiled blackmail =96 that the Development
Agenda programme just passed by the Assembly last week, which is meant
to benefit developing countries =96 will not be properly implemented
because the budget is blocked, and unblocking will come only when the
DG agrees to leave.

Many are asking why the Western countries decided to move against the
DG at this point, when the allegations of financial mismanagement at
Wipo had surfaced years ago.

Diplomats from developing countries are of the view that the developed
countries had in fact liked Kamal Idris because he had led the
Secretariat to implement their agenda to strengthen and tighten
intellectual property in the developing countries.

However, in recent years, the developing countries have been advocating
a major reform in Wipo that would make its rules and programmes more
development-friendly. The DG was not known to be a friend of this
process, but he was unable to stop it.

According to the diplomats, the powerful countries find that Wipo and
its Director General are no longer useful to them, and that a change in
leadership is urgently required to reverse the direction the
organisation is moving in before the =93development=94 aspects get
entrenched.

Thus not only is the leadership of Wipo at stake, but also its
fundamental aims, direction and activities. The next months will be
crucial in whether, and how, these are settled.

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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