UN official: Joint measures should be taken to reduce corruption

A United Nations official has offered a set of rules at an ongoing anti-corruption conference here to help prevent and curb corruption.

"Prevention is crucial," said Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, at the First Annual Conference and General Meeting of the International Association of Anti-Corruption Authorities.

"It may be naive to think that we can rid the world of all corruption. But we can certainly minimize its impact on governments, economies and ordinary citizens," he said.

Preventive measures can reduce the possibility of corruption and limit its corrosive effects, he said, and the key is to have in place concrete anti-corruption measures and public sector management practices based on the rule of law, transparency and accountability.

The UN official said public officials should have to disclose their annual earnings and financial assets and governments should routinely investigate obvious discrepancies between reported income and extravagant life styles.

However, the official said, preventive measures alone are insufficient.Countries need to make corruption a crime and combat it with effective law enforcement. Influence peddling must be made a criminal offence, along with the abuse of official functions and illicit enrichment, he said.

"Furthermore, there should be no safe havens for dirty money," he said.

According to the official, there should also be adequate protection of witnesses, experts and victims, and compensation for damage.

At the same time, borders and safe havens should not be an impediment to investigations or to bringing guilty parties to justice, he said.

"We need greater cooperation on extradition, mutual legal assistance, transnational law enforcement cooperation and joint investigations," he said.

When assets have been stolen it is hard to get them back, he said, but it is not impossible if innovative asset recovery tools are put in place, for example prevention guidelines, tracking systems and an assessment tool.

"We must also improve the way that corruption is measured," he said. And "a structured global monitoring mechanism is also essential to ensure that international anti-corruption commitments are being implemented."

Source: Xinhua