Taxonomy
"Follow the money": new animated short
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.
PWYP Welcomes Adoption of Transparency Act in Liberia
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….”
Revenues from oil, gas and mining must benefit all Cambodians, new coalition urges
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.
Helsinki Commission Energy Transparency video
U.S. Senator Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD), Chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (U.S. Helsinki Commission), and Co-Chairman Congressman Alcee L. Hastings (D-FL) have just released a video promoting transparency in the energy sector. The video includes U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), a member of the U.S.
Global Witness welcomes new Liberian Transparency law, urges other countries to follow suit
A new transparency law signed by President of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, covering oil extraction, mining and other natural resource industries, sets an impressive benchmark for global efforts to fight the natural resource curse and should be emulated by other countries, said Global Witness today.
Reforming corruption out of Nigerian oil? Part two: Progress and prospects
In Nigeria, as elsewhere, corrupt practices impair oil sector performance. This U4 Brief looks at five approaches to advancing anti-corruption reform in Nigeria’s oil sector: the legal and regulatory framework; open and competitive award procedures; process and revenue transparency; investigation and prosecution of corruption; and oversight and accountability measures.
Reforming corruption out of Nigerian oil? Part one: Mapping corruption risks in oil sector governance
This U4 Brief attempts to shed light on how public sector institutions governing the Nigerian oil sector permit the existence of corruption. Six areas of corruption risk are addressed: the awarding of licenses; the awarding of contracts; bottlenecks and inefficiencies; the role of bunkering; the exportation of crude; and importing refined products.
Open Budget Index 2008 Released
On 1 February 2009 the International Budget Partnership released the Open Budget Index 2008, the only independent, comparative measure of government budget transparency in 85 countries around the world. For the first time, data is now available on how open and accountable such countries as China, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, and Democratic Republic of Congo are to their publics.
The Coming Oil Boom in Ghana
Ghana discovers oil, and has an opportunity to use it for development—if it can avoid the usual traps of new oil wealth in developing countries.
Lifting the Resource Curse: Extractive Industries, Children and Governance
This report focuses on the paradoxical links between natural resource wealth and child poverty in developing countries, including Azerbaijan, Nigeria, Sudan and Venezuela. It includes recommendations for governments, companies, shareholders, donors and civil society on how to enhance transparency over company payments and government revenues, which Save the Children UK believes to be integral to a more accountable system for the management of such revenues that is in the best interests of children.
