Blog
The PWYP Blog gathers together information, updates and ideas about the role of transparency in the extractive industries in creating economic growth and fighting poverty and corruption. On this lively blog, contributors from the PWYP coalition and guest bloggers share their thoughts and opinions, which are open to comment from anybody.
This blog is moderated, spam or abusive comments will be deleted.
Shell’s tax transparency claims ring hollow
January 25, 2012 - 10:39In a ‘methinks-she-doth-protest-too-much’ declaration of transparency love, Shell’s Finance Chief Simon Henry recently wrote an article in the Telegraph stating the oil major’s commitment to transparency, paying fair taxes and seeking better cooperation with tax authorities.
They justified their use of tax havens: _“it’s for sovereign nations to determine their own tax rates in accordance with the revenues they want to generat
Jetons un regard sur l'année 2011
January 6, 2012 - 16:40Il se peut que toutes les époques soient des « époques intéressantes ». Pourtant 2011 fut vraiment pour PCQVP une année spéciale. Il est impossible de mentionner en quelques mots tous les points forts de cette année écoulée. Si vous voulez revoir ce qui s’est passé cette année vous pouvez toujours relire nos bulletins.
2011 a été une année jalon pour PCQVP.
A look back at 2011...
January 6, 2012 - 16:29Although it is often true that “all times are interesting times”, 2011 really has been quite the year for Publish What You Pay.
Something for Friday: Congo Mines
November 11, 2011 - 14:24Something for Friday
Every week, we'll be sharing an online resource that the PWYP team has been exploring. These might be newly launched, newly discovered, or simply old favourites that we want to highlight!
This week, we've been taking a look at Congo Mines
98 of the FTSE 100 use tax havens, reveals ActionAid report
October 17, 2011 - 16:28ActionAid’s report Addicted to tax havens found that after the banking sector “oil and mining companies comprise the other big group of tax haven users. BP and Shell have almost 1,000 tax haven companies between them, including more than 100 in the Caribbean (hardly a major source of oil).
Who's next for EITI - Canada?
September 22, 2011 - 09:53The US’ decision to implement EITI has put added pressure on Canada to become a member. Although Canada has been a supporting country of EITI, it has yet to make the transition to membership. As a very resource-rich country itself, EITI implementation could benefit all Canadian citizens. Journalists have also pointed out that with the number of Canadian companies operating around the globe, the country risks damaging its reputation if it does not vigorously pursue extractive transparency.
Civil society has not taken a back seat in their bid to drive Canada to EITI membership.
Piping profits - a new report
September 15, 2011 - 15:39
Report comes out tomorrow
Few details are known about the murky and expansive networks of extractive companies’ and their subsidiaries. PWYP Norway has sought to shed light on this phenomenon by tracing and locating the subsidiaries of ten of the world’s biggest extractive companies, also calculating how many of these were incorporated in secrecy jurisdictions.
Secrecy jurisdictions facilitate illicit financial flows, to which the developing world loses US$1 trillion a year.
The cost of compliance – a drop in the bucket for big oil?
September 12, 2011 - 14:52Oil companies have complained about how much Dodd-Frank 1504 would cost them in reporting and compliance costs. Royal Dutch Shell argues they would lose ‘tens of millions of dollars’ while API claims the potential cost is in the ‘hundreds of millions of dollars’ for industry.
The Securities and Exchange Commission – which is currently working on the details of the rule – has also provided figures concerning the cost of compliance.
Oil belongs to you
September 8, 2011 - 10:36Do you know who owns all that oil that the petroleum companies extract from American territory? It surprises a lot of American to learn that such resources are actually owned by the public. Every citizen in this country owns a share of those resources because, for the most part, they sit on Federal lands. When a company like Shell wants to start drilling in Alaskan waters or the Gulf of Mexico, they lease the land from Government agencies in exchange for payments. Those payments are then distributed to local governments and the Federal government, to be used for public services.
British PM David Cameron joins call for Europe to introduce mandatory financial reporting standards
July 20, 2011 - 10:53Delivering a speech at Lagos during a state visit to Nigeria, British Prime Minister David Cameron joined the call for Europe to introduce mandatory financial reporting rules for extractive companies.
As he emphasized that ‘mineral wealth should be a blessing, not a curse’ the Prime Minister referred to US legislation which requires extractive companies to divulge financial information on a country-by-country and project-by-project basis, before calling on Europe to ‘do the same’. This US legislation – section 1504 of the Dodd-Frank Act – in fact celebrated its first year anniversary on 15 July 2011, though the SEC have yet to publish the exact rules for this provision. PWYP has called on the SEC to issue these as soon as possible.
