The government today said it is committed to fight the menace of corruption. Speaking at a function in New Delhi, Minister of State for Personnel V Narayanasamy said the government has taken several steps in the recent past to curb corruption. He said in June last year, India ratified the United Nations Convention Against Corruption. Mr. Narayansamy said this step will facilitate efforts to secure effective international cooperation in tackling trans border corruption. The Minister expressed hope that the Prevention of Bribery of Foreign Public Officials and Officials of Public International Organisations Bill 2011 which has been introduced in Parliament will be passed soon.

The Minister said recovering and attaching the assets of the accused persons which have been created out of the ill gotten wealth needs urgent attention. The Minister also inaugurated CBI's first training exercise for its investigators on ways to recover of black money stashed abroad as part of Interpol's Global Programme on anti-corruption and asset recovery for prosecutors.

CBI Director A P Singh said the World Bank estimates the cross border flow of money from criminal activities including corruption and tax evasion to be around $1.5 trillion annually.

Mr. Singh said the main objective of this global programme is to enhance the knowledge and skills of investigators and prosecutors in tracking assets of mass corruption, and making effective use of legal assistance in international and trans-border investigations.

AIR correspondent reports, over 30 police officers from Australia, Afghanistan, China, Hongkong, Sri Lanka, the United Kingdom, Indonesia, Fiji, Malaysia, Nepal, Singapore and Phillipines are participating in the training programme.