Last night the U.S. Congress voted in favour of sweeping financial reforms which include a landmark provision requiring oil, gas and mining companies registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to publish how much they pay to foreign countries and the U.S. government.

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act is expected to be signed into law by President Obama next week and will give citizens of resource-rich countries essential information to hold their governments to account and ensure that natural resources generate benefits for everyone, rather than a select few.

Senate Should Pass Cardin Amendment to Financial Reform Bill

In the midst of an unfolding environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the oil industry is supporting secrecy and business as usual on Capitol Hill by opposing a critical amendment to the financial reform bill. The bipartisan amendment would increase financial transparency in the oil, gas, and mining industries and provide valuable information to investors in the United States and to citizens in poor countries around the world, says international humanitarian organization Oxfam America. The amendment is likely to face a floor vote this week.

Oxfam America has just launched a new animated video showing how so little of the profits from extractive industries reach local communities. In the US the video is intended to encourage people to take action and contact their member of Congress regarding the Energy Security Through Transparency Act – a crucial piece of legislation that would require any company registered with the US authorities (Securities and Exchange Commission) to disclose their payments in every country of operation.

Oil, gas and mineral companies can reduce global instability by opening the books on their payments, say investors, industry experts, and human rights advocates

Washington, D.C.— A little more public information could make a big difference in the stability of U.S. energy supplies, say congressional and industry leaders and leading international activists who have renewed the call for a “publish what you pay” rule change at the U.S.

London: Publish What You Pay (PWYP)* welcomes the news that Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has signed a new transparency law which increases accountability over the management of the country’s natural resources.

Approved on 10 July 2009, the LEITI Act seeks to ensure that the benefits due to the government and people of Liberia from the exploitation of natural resources are “verifiably paid or provided; duly accounted for; and prudently utilized for the benefits of all Liberians….”

Phnom Penh, Cambodia: Cambodians for Resource Revenue Transparency (CRRT), a new coalition of civil society organizations was launched today and urged the Royal Government of Cambodia, donors, private businesses, and other stakeholders to promote transparency in the management of revenues from oil, gas and mining to ensure that they benefit every citizen of Cambodia.

As Cambodia is expected to experience a sudden resource windfall, careful planning is needed to ensure that a sudden increase in revenues and expenditures are properly managed in a socially transparent and accountable manner that especially reaches the poorest Cambodians.

Rio Tinto, the global mining company, has taken an important step towards transparency by voluntarily disclosing, for the first time, the total tax and royalty payments that it makes to 13 of the countries where it operates, Publish What You Pay (PWYP) said today.