The United Nations has revealed in a report on corruption that one trillion dollars are paid in bribes annually, and another 2.6 trillion are stolen.
The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said values and economic development were under assault, as trillions of dollars were lost.
He added that every year, trillions of dollars which is equivalent to more than five per cent of global Gross Domestic Product – are paid or received in bribes or stolen through corruption.
Guterres refers to corruption as “an assault on the values of the United Nations.”
He insists that corruption “robs societies of schools, hospitals and other vital services, drives away foreign investment and strips nations of their natural resources”.
It is based on this record that United Nations is fighting the global scourge, which affects both rich and poor countries, through initiatives like the global campaign launched jointly by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
This campaign recognised corruption as one of the biggest impediments to achieving the SDGs, or 2030 Sustainable Development Goals agreed by all nations of the world in 2015, to advance mankind.
