Financial Transparency Coalition

A new transparency law is being debated by the European Union that would require oil, gas, mining and forestry companies to make public all payments they make to governments anywhere in the world. A similar provision exists in Section 1504 of the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform bill in the United States.  Such a law would eliminate much of the opacity that exists in developing countries currently by allowing individuals to see how much money their governments are getting from extractive industries deals, and hold them accountable for it. Lobbyists for many of the extractive companies are working to dilute the law by taking various measures that allow more room for corporate secrecy.  ONE and other organizations are actively promoting this law as part of the Publish What You Pay coalition.  A petition in support of the transparency law can be found here.

ONE ran this ad in the Financial Times this week:

Adrian Lovett at the Huffington Post writes more on the topic, further engaging details, issues and debates about the proposed European Union law.

For African countries this law could be transformative. In 2010 extractive industries were estimated to be worth $333 billion to Africa. It dwarfs aid – which was $48 billion in the same year. Africa is not poor – it is resource rich. New oil finds are regular news across the continent – from Kenya to Sierra Leone. As ONE’s co-founder Bono wrote recently in Time Magazine now is an opportunity to ensure the “resource boom benefits the many, not the few”.