Financial Transparency Coalition

Global Witness Statement on Proposed Section 1504 Rule Today the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced a strong proposed rule to implement a landmark transparency law which requires US-listed oil, gas and mining companies to publish details of their payments to governments, broken down per country and per project, with no exemptions.

Many experts have called Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania the “next frontier” of gas and oil production. In fact, these reserves have the potential to turn these nations’ economies from “mixed” to “success” stories. One large impediment to this possibility, however, is trade misinvoicing, which occurs on a massive scale. It I so serious that this problem threatens their governments’ ability to capitalize on the potential gains associated with the discovery of oil and gas. The discovery of oil in Kenya and Uganda, and gas in Tanzania has thrust each of these nations into the world’s energy spotlight. In 2006 Uganda...

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is widely considered one of the world’s nations with the highest levels of natural resource wealth. In particular, the nation is richly endowed with many types of mining industries—including copper, cobalt, gold, diamonds, and tin—and timber. In fact, DRC accounts for 51% of the world’s extraction of cobalt and is the world’s fourth largest producer of diamonds. Despite this wealth, and in part because of it, the country also has experienced conflict, economic instability, and systematic corruption since its independence in 1960. These dynamics have contributed to its status as the world’s poorest nation...

Former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan released a statement late last week, in advance of the Africa Progress Panel's May 10th report, Equity in Extractives. The statement is short, but sweet: