Publish What You Pay calls for transparency in the extractive
industries to be made a condition of all lending, development and technical
assistance programmes by international financial institutions like the
International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group.
The IMF and World Bank Group have very significant leverage over governments of resource-rich countries and over many extractive industry investments operated by the private sector. World Bank actions often play a catalytic role in spurring extractive industry investments in risky environments, but the record to date shows that extractive industries have more often been a curse rather than a blessing for the world’s poor. By taking measures to implement transparency in the extractive sector, such as was done in the case of the World Bank-supported Chad oil project, multilateral institutions will significantly enhance their contribution to economic growth, development and poverty alleviation in resource-rich but poor countries.
Such measures would require governments to mandate the disclosure of all payments to the state by all extractive companies (i.e. “Publish What You Pay”) and all receipts of such payments by state agencies or representatives (“Publish What You Earn”).
Specifically:
- Transparency should be a core condition for all future structural adjustment lending to the oil, gas and mining sectors and for all non-humanitarian aid, as well as for all technical assistance and other activities.
- Companies and governments that benefit from any form of World Bank Group support, such as funding from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) or guarantees from the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), should be required to publish what they pay governments for the right to access and exploit oil, gas and mining resources. Disclosure should include taxes, fees, royalties and other payments, including signature bonuses. Production-sharing agreements and other contracts vital to the tracking of revenue streams should also be disclosed.
- Meaningful consultation with civil society about the disclosure of revenues from resource extraction and how they are to be spent should be an essential element of the Poverty Reduction and Country Assistance Strategy processes in all resource-rich countries.
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