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.
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On 24 January 2012, the British APPG on International Corporate Responsibility and the APPG on the Great Lakes Region of Africa, with PWYP, hosted a panel on transparency in the extractive industries.
The panel discussed the amendment proposals introduced by the European Commission in October 2011, which would oblige listed (and large non-listed) extractive companies to publish what they pay on a country and project basis.
In 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
Il 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.
Although it is often true that “all times are interesting times”, 2011 really has been quite the year for Publish What You Pay.
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
ActionAid’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).
The 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.
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.
Oil 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.
Do 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.