UN to launch anti-corruption academy

The UN anti-crime agency and Interpol said they would create an academy teaching officials worldwide how to curb corruption, which sucks roughly €733 million a year out of the global economy.

The academy will open in autumn next year near Vienna to impart skills to government and police officials in pre-empting and rooting out graft and bribery that hinder modernisation and warp public policy, especially in developing nations.

Interpol, the global police investigation agency, and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) signed a deal in Vienna to establish the world’s first anti-corruption school.

"This partnership demonstrates our common resolve and commitment to educate and train police, government officials and others to fight this serious criminal conduct which threatens the security and safety of citizens around the world," Interpol secretary general Ronald Noble said in a statement.

"This academy will train officers so as to ... build a culture of integrity in the conduct of business, both public and private," said UNODC director Antonio Maria Costa.

Global flows from criminal activities, corruption and tax evasion are estimated at between €733 million and €1.1 trillion a year, according to a UN and World Bank report.