Today is International Anti-Corruption Day (IACD).
Held on 9 December every year, IACD aims to raise awareness of corrupt conduct and generate discussion on combating and preventing it.
The theme for IACD 2024 is Uniting with Youth Against Corruption: Shaping Tomorrow’s Integrity.
To effectively promote a culture of integrity across the public and private sectors and build a generation that stands up to corruption, education is key. Education teaches values of transparency, accountability and integrity from an early age.
While the 2024 theme for IACD 2024 focuses on the role of young people, raising awareness about corrupt conduct for all members of the community is essential.
Corrupt conduct affects all countries. Undetected and unchecked, improper conduct can:
undermine public trust in governmentwaste public resources and moneycause injustice through benefiting some people at the expense of otherslead to inefficiencies in operationscause reputational damage that makes it difficult to recruit and retain quality staff or obtain best value in tender processeslead to difficulty attracting business investment, adversely affecting prosperity.
The Office of the ICAC supports all NT public officers and public bodies in raising awareness of what improper conduct is under the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption Act 2017.
Naomi Loudon
Acting Independent Commissioner Against Corruption
