Financial Transparency Coalition

Last July, the Dodd-Frank act provided in its section 1504 that all companies operating in the extractive industries that must report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) would have to publish all payments they make to the U.S. government or any foreign government on a project basis. Since then, the French and British governments have supported similar EU legislation. Many international companies worldwide, and not only the U.S. companies, will be covered by the upcoming SEC regulations which implement section 1504. The argument against such a provision—being a threat to competitiveness—was utilized widely even before Dodd-Frank was...

Targeting Stock Exchanges is Key in Civil Society's Push for Country-by-Country Reporting, writes François Valérian Today, Transparency International and the Revenue Watch Institute have published the Promoting Revenue Transparency 2011 Report on Oil and Gas Companies. This report evaluates corporate reporting performance on anti-corruption programmes, on subsidiaries and partners, as well as on country-level financial results and technical data. The report shows a concerning reporting gap. Most companies score significantly better in reporting on anti-corruption programmes than in country-level reporting of relevant financial and technical data. This gap further illustrates the major focus of corporate communication, at least for listed...

An article the other week in the Ugandan Daily Monitor quotes an official from the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA), Mr. Patrick Mukiibi, on the value and implications of illicit flows from that country. According to the article, Uganda loses UGX 2 trillion (approx. USD 866 million) annually through “tax crime”, also termed “economic and tax fraud”. The Ugandan Ministry of Finance says that the current fiscal year (2010/2011) government budget is UGX 7.5 trillion (approx. USD 3.2 billion), and it will need loans and other development assistance to cover 26 percent of this. In other words, the article...

U.S. President Applauds New SEC Reporting Requirement, Vows to Campaign for Adoption of Similar Global Regulation Last Wednesday, as President Obama’s signature graced the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the long-awaited overhaul of the financial regulatory system finally became the law of the land. This included a small but important provision, the Energy Security Through Transparency (ESTT) amendment, which is designed to increase transparency in extractive industries by requiring oil, gas, and mining companies registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission...