Investors

Considerable progress on improving revenue transparency has been made since the launch of Publish What You Pay (PWYP) in 2002

Considerable progress on improving revenue transparency has been made since the launch of Publish What You Pay (PWYP) in 2002

Statoil, the Norwegian oil company, has made an important contribution to the global effort for greater transparency of payments from the oil industry to governments, by publishing a breakdown of its tax payments to each country around the world.

Oil companies rarely disclose how much they pay to the governments of developing countries where they operate. The citizens of these countries have no reliable way of knowing how much oil revenue their government is receiving.

Conference on the Growing Importance of African Oil, Co-Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and the National Intelligence Council, held at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington, DC

As institutional investors with exposure to companies operating around the world, we believe it is in the interest of the companies in which we invest to operate in a business environment that is characterised by stability, transparency and respect for the rule of law. These factors are essential to securing economic prosperity and social cohesion, which, in turn, enable the companies in which we invest to prosper.

Institutional investors with exposure to companies operating around the world, believe it is in the interest of the companies in which they invest to operate in a business environment that is characterised by stability, transparency and respect for the rule of law.

As institutional investors with exposure to companies operating around the world, we believe it is in the interest of the companies in which we invest to operate in a business environment that is characterised by stability, transparency and respect for the rule of law. These factors are essential to securing economic prosperity and social cohesion, which, in turn, enable the companies in which we invest to prosper. However, they are frequently undermined by poor standards of governance and transparency, which can give rise to corrupt operating environments.

We are concerned that extractive companies are particularly exposed to the risks posed by operating in these environments. Companies that make legitimate, but undisclosed, payments to governments may be accused of contributing to the conditions under which corruption can thrive. This is a significant business risk, making companies vulnerable to accusations of complicity in corrupt behaviour, impairing their local and global “licence to operate”, rendering them vulnerable to local conflict and insecurity, and possibly compromising their long-term commercial prospects in these markets.

We believe that improved transparency about both payment and revenue flows is an important contributor to good governance by host governments, although its effectiveness will depend on the success of wider initiatives to combat corruption and the misuse of revenues.

We recognise that the root of the governance problem often lies in underdeveloped local capacity in many host countries. However, in the light of the G8 discussions on corruption and increased international attempts to create transparency about revenue flows, we believe that the corporate sector has an important opportunity to support government and multilateral institutions by taking action to protect its own long-term interests.

At a conference in Oslo today hosted by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a group of over 70 international investment institutions representing combined assets of $12.3 trillion will signal its strong support for an inter-governmental effort to boost transparency standards in the oil, gas and mining sectors of developing countries.

A coalition of socially responsible investors sends a letter to the United Nations Human Rights Council supporting businesses’ responsibility for human rights.

SocialFunds.com — Three years after being appointed by then United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan as a special representative on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises, Professor John Ruggie presented his findings on business and human rights to the United Nations Human Rights Council last week.

The Publish What You Pay coalition of over 100 NGOs warmly welcomes the statement from UK and European investors calling for the public disclosure of taxes, royalties and other payments by extractive companies.

The European Parliament today called for a new international accounting standard requiring oil, gas and mining companies to report critical financial information, such as payments to governments, on a country-by-country basis. The European Parliament has thereby endorsed a long-standing demand of Publish What You Pay (PWYP), a global civil society coalition of over 300 groups fighting for greater transparency and accountability in the extractive industries that dominate the economies of many developing countries.