Merida, Yucatan — Citizens, enforcement officials and members of the state Anti-corruption System inaugurated Yucatan’s new anti-corruption office.
Since the beginning of the week, the Technical Secretariat has been set up there to receive complaints from citizens who were hit up for bribes.
The office, at No 51 Avenida Aleman, is in a blue-and-white building next to the Plaza Fiesta shopping center, and has a staff of 30.
Corruption is among the top citizen complaints, both in Yucatan and nationally. Low wages make employees with any authority susceptible to payoffs.
The opening of the Technical Secretariat coincided with the United Nations’ International Anti-Corruption Day and the Day of Integrity.
Every year $1 trillion is paid in bribes while an estimated $2.6 trillion are stolen annually through corruption – a sum equivalent to more than 5 percent of the global GDP. In developing countries, according to the United Nations Development Program, funds lost to corruption are estimated at 10 times the amount of official development assistance.
