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Terming corruption as one of the factors responsible for the global financial crisis, UN Secretary General Ban-Ki-moon has said a concerted fight is required to eliminate the evil that is also hampering the realisation of the millenium development goals.
"Greed and corruption are the twin evils partly to blame for the market meltdown and failure to reach human rights goals," he said in a message on the occasion of International Anti-Corruption Day.
Throughout the developing world, he emphasised, billions of dollars needed for healthcare, education, clean water and infrastructure are being drained by bribes and other forms of corruption.
"This makes it harder to provide basic services and achieve the millennium development goals," Ban noted.
"It is not only governments and financial institutions that need to do more to prevent corruption," he said.
The head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime called for greater adherence to the UN Convention Against Corruption that has been signed by 130 nations.
"If more governments and businesses implemented the Convention, we wouldn't be in such a mess," said Antonio Maria Costa, UNODC executive director.
The UN Independent Expert on the question of human rights and poverty underscored how corruption threatens efforts to eliminate poverty.
"The very funds being allocated to poverty reduction programmes are too often diverted into the hands of corrupt elites," said Magdalena Sepulveda.
She also stressed that the scourge disproportionately affects women because they are 'over-represented in the poorest social segments of society and under-represented in decision-making bodies.'