Top U.N. official lies about his age

Kamil Idris, director general of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) at the United Nations, has finally decided that being an extra decade old has lost its appeal. An internal audit found that Idris, who has been working for WIPO for 24 years and has been in the top post for about 10 of those, has signed numerous documents stating his birth year as 1945. He was actually born in 1954.

Given that most people would lie about being younger than they really are, why has Idris been misleading the U.N. and WIPO in the other direction? Because he instantly gained the ten years of senior experience required for his position when he entered the WIPO in 1982. The problem now, though, is what happens to Idris’ severance pay and retirement prospects, given that he is almost a decade younger than he initially said. WIPO said the following in its statement:

He undertook to rectify his date of birth on official records to, amongst other things, ensure that no benefit would derive from his mistake.”

Hmm … Isn’t it a little too late for that?