Corruption at UN's World Intellectual Property Organization

"WIPO's [World Intellectual Property Organization] director general Francis Gurry is seeking to strengthen his hold on the UN's global IP group by getting rid of its staff council.

A lawyer for the council, Matthew Parish, has written to all United Nations ambassadors expressing concern over Gurry's attempts to alter the composition of the body, whose most recent elections took place just three months ago.

The staff council represents staff interests to management; it is almost like a trade union.

Gurry sacked the previous head of the council, Moncef Kateb, when he blew the whistle on the bizarre behaviour of the patent boss and his transfer of computer equipment to Iran and North Korea in apparent breach of UN Security Council sanctions...

The civil servants' trade union, FICSA, has also condemned what it sees as an attempt to shut down the staff representative body...

FICSA warns that Gurry's actions risk damaging the credibility of not just WIPO but also the rest of the UN...

The US Congress subcommittee on international organizations ... described WIPO as 'the FIFA of UN agencies'..."