The International Anti-Corruption Day will be observed on December 9 with the theme ‘Act Against Corruption Today’, to raise awareness regarding corruption and the United Nation’s (UN) role in preventing it.
Political leaders, governments, legal bodies and lobby groups must work together against corruption by promoting the day and the issues that surround the event, said the UN General Secretary in a statement. “As the international community strives to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 and forge an agenda for economic and social progress in the years beyond, addressing the problem of corruption becomes all the more urgent. The cost of corruption is measured not just in billions of dollars squandered or stolen government resources, but most poignantly in the absence of hospitals, schools, clean water, roads and bridges that might have been built with that money and would have certainly changed the fortunes of families and communities,” he added.
He said that anti-corruption advocates organise events on this day to engage the general public to fight against corruption and fraud in communities.
Corruption is a complex social, political and economic phenomenon that affects all countries. It undermines democratic institutions, slows economic development and contributes to governmental instability, he said.
Corruption attacks the foundation of democratic institutions by distorting electoral processes, perverting the rule of law and creating bureaucratic quagmires, whose only reason for existing is the soliciting of bribes.
