By Ramesh Mathew
The United Nations yesterday gave a call to strengthen the administrative systems within every member-country to introduce measures capable of empowering its citizens to fight different forms of corruption prevailing in the society.
Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Antonio Maria Costa made the appeal at the opening of the 3rd session of the Conference of the States Parties to the UN Convention against Corruption at Doha Sheraton Hotel.
HH the Heir Apparent Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, HE the Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah and HE the Justice Minister Hassan bin Abdullah al-Ghanem were among others who attended the inaugural ceremony.
Qatar’s Attorney General HE Dr Ali bin Futais al-Marri, who took over as the president of the third session until 2011, chaired the session, attended by about 1,500 delegates from several member-countries.
Insisting that it is not corruption alone that triggered the ongoing global financial turmoil, the speaker said it is this evil trait of people that played a significant part in undermining the global system.
“The ongoing crisis is the result of corrupted minds as much as of corrupted practices indulged in by many people,” said Costa.
Even while acknowledging that globalisation has fuelled global economic growth and contributed to the birth of some new economic giants in Asia and Latin America, much to a certain extent the developments resulted in skewed income distribution in many countries, the UN official said.
Globalisation, he said, also promoted the world-wide boom of stock markets and the integration of the banking industry. Even while enabling many people reap rich dividends of its benefits, it contributed in no mean measure in developing a culture of gambling with dramatic consequences, pointed out Costa.
“Finally, it also allowed transnational organised crime to become macro-economic in size and global in its reach,” said the speaker.
Maintaining that many governments allowed their respective actors to knowingly or unknowingly take over their control, without adhering to the law of land, Costa said it contributed to the weakening of their economic pillars with financiers and corporate tycoons turning their dealings into a free-for all-game.
“Initially, bankers, fund-managers, commodity traders and realtors sold their services (also their souls) to make huge sums of money and then when the system collapsed drew money to avoid foreclosure,” he said.
The speaker also came down heavily on what he described as “the armies of auditors, accountants and corporate lawyers” for what he termed as “mercenaries to illicit industries”.
They covered up dirty dealings and gave corporate houses and others an air of legality.
Costa also felt that some prominent rating agencies spoiled their name, fame and reputation by teaching fraudulent corporate financial tycoons cheat people and then giving them a clean bill of health.
Costa did not spare the offshore financial centres either. He said some of them were already notorious for low ethics and high returns.
“They have been happy to accept any kinds of money from any source, without asking for their route,” he said.
Advising people to learn some useful lessons from the existing situation, the UN official said as most of the G-20 leaders felt, there is a chance at present to use the outcome of the convention to do some urgent repair to put the house in order. “It would help restore confidence in markets, businesses and governments,” he said.
Urging media, parliamentarians, private sector, civil societies and NGOs to adopt strategies to fight corruption at different levels, Costa said unified efforts by parties concerned would contribute in a big way to check its menace locally, regionally and globally.
“Unless this is done, trafficking of huge quantities of heroin, cocaine and their likes, illegal felling of trees for several hundreds of kilometers and running of criminal networks inside the prisons will continue to be a day today feature in many countries,” warned Costa.
Even while blaming the perpetrators of crime, one cannot remain mute to the actions of others, he said.
“From border guards to senior government officials, from corporate lawyers to chief executives, from nurses to bureaucrats who refuse to provide services unless paid a bribe, each of them has a say in the day-to-day running of affairs at various levels,” he said.
Recalling that so many developments have taken place since the leaders met at Bali more than two years ago, Costa highlighted the necessity of initiating steps for a transparent, non-intrusive, inclusive and fair global level mechanism for fighting corruption at different levels.
“It should be a technical inter-governmental review, not a game of name and shame, so that States must measure progress against themselves, not against each other,” he said. |
