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Open letter to Ambassador Andrew Staines, United Kingdom to WTO/WIPO (Geneva)

Dear Ambassador Andrew Staines,

This is to request you, in your capacity as the Chair of the WIPO Program and Budget Committee (PBC), to take up the recent allegations against the WIPO Director General, Francis Gurry, and his Administration at the upcoming Twenty-Ninth Session of the PBC meetings, 6~10 May 2019, under the agenda “8. Updated WIPO Accountability Framework”.

These serious allegations, ranging from abuse of power, retaliation, to cover-up of sexual harassment etc., are signs that the Administration’s Accountability Framework is just ten pages of pretty words. It appears that Mr. Gurry has been acting like a king and accountable to no one. The root cause of the apparent breakdown of WIPO’s internal control is that the system is designed with the assumption that the most senior official – the Director General – is honorable and ethical. When this assumption is in doubt, the framework falls apart as demonstrated by the recent allegations.

I call upon you and your Committee to put in place an effective accountability mechanism that has teeth. These may include:
• Having an Assistant Director General or Deputy Director General also elected by the Member States. This senior official is not appointed and cannot be fired by the Director General and does not report to the Director General. (S)he shall oversee a portfolio including the Internal Oversight Division, Ethics Office, Ombudsperson, Office of Legal Council, risk management and the Medical Unit, etc.;
• Explicitly stating that the Director General may be personally liable for civil or criminal cases brought against her/him after her/his separation from WIPO for her/his conducts during her/his term as the Director General;
• Requesting that the Administration to explicitly include in its annual financial report the total amount of expenditures related to legal cases in defending the organization or its executive heads. These expenditures often occurred as settlements as result of the Organization’s relentless attacks against staff members even though the Organization knew they did not have a valid case against the staff but wanted to crush the staff first nonetheless. Such expenditures must include, but not limited to, the settlement fees paid by the organization (although not the amount for individual cases);
• Providing free and independent legal assistance to staff members who are the subject of the Administration’s disciplinary actions. This could be arranged and funded through MoU with the Office of Staff Legal Assistance, which already has such mandate for the staff members of the United Nations. The current system encourages the Organization to bring, and abuse, its entire weight against any individual;
• Explicitly declaring that it may be a misconduct to simply follow the instructions of the supervisor without reporting such instances through the established channels, if any reasonable person can see that such instructions are against the staff regulations and rules or other administrative instructions;
• Disallowing the delegation of authority to direct or indirect subordinate for performing any administrative act in relation to disciplinary actions against staff when the supervisor has, or is perceived to have, a conflict of interest;
• Extending the whistleblower protection policy to staff members who have been separated from the Organization. The current policy makes summary dismissal the most effective retaliatory act by the Organization since the policy is no longer applicable ones the staff member is dismissed. This issue was brought up by the Staff Council of the WIPO Staff Association when the policy was revised in 2017.

I trust that these measures will be a good starting point to curb the executive head’s abuse of power if implemented immediately. I look forward to having your confirmation ASAP and to seeing the discussion of these suggestions over the webcasting of the PBC meetings in May.

Sincerely,

Wei LEI

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