The United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC) called upon national governments to effectively implement the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC). It urged for a corruption-free society for fulfilling the objectives of democracy, development and achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
UNCAC was signed in 2003 in Merida in Mexico and entered into force from December 14, 2005. The treaty has been signed by 140 countries and ratified by 128 countries. Countries in South Asia, including India have signed the treaty.
Speaking at seminar on the theme ? You Can Stop Corruption : Your NO Counts ? organized jointly by UNODC, Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and the UN Information Centre in New Delhi on Monday, the UNODC chief for governance, human security and rule of law section, Timothy Lemay said : “Over the last decade the world community has recognized that corruption has evolved into global scourage. Only 20 years ago corruption was considered a benign problem and international organizations considered it impolite to even use the word.” The seminar was organized on the eve of the International Anti-Corruption Day which falls on December 9.
He said that the heaviest burden of corruption fell on the poor. In Africa the estimated cost of corruption exceeded $148 billion a year, equivalent to 25% of the continent’s annual GDP.”Organised criminals, terrorists, drug traffickers ? all of them rely heavily on corruption when carrying out their evil intentions,” he said.
In his inaugural speech, the former President of India, APJ Abdul Kalam emphasized the need for promoting a corruption-free society. He urged leading organizations, business enterprises, institutions and the government to develop the ability of using their own conscience in discriminating right from wrong.
The officer-in-charge for UNODC regional office for South Asia, Ashita Mittal said : “corruption impacts everything. And its impacts the most vulnerable ? the most. The poorest of the poor, the marginalized get impacted first ? as funds diverted towards their betterment, all but filters down to them. Countries are then left with even fewer resources for social spending.”
He said that cross-border flow of global proceeds from criminal activities, corruption and tax evasion was estimated between $1-1.6 trillion a year. Corrupt money associated with bribes received by public officials from developing and transition countries is estimated at $20-40 billion a year, equivalent to 20-40% of the flows of official development assistance (ODA). He, however, failed to give the estimates of corruption in the developed world, particularly those leading to the causes of recent financial crisis.
Mittal lauded India for introducing the Right to Information (RTI) Act in June 2005 with the objective of improving accountability and transparency in government agencies.