Tag Archives | mining

Time to stop secret contracts

We entrust governments – with our votes and money – to act transparently in our interest. This includes for the public contracts that they bid out to deliver: everything from schoolbooks to sanitation systems. Globally, these costs are estimated to top nearly US$ 9.5 trillion each year. Yet many of these contracts are done behind […]

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Oil money in Gabon and Sierra Leone: from mirage to reality?

Many of the world’s poorest countries by per capita income are actually some of the richest in terms of natural resources. Trouble is, this wealth doesn’t reach citizens who, by rights, own the resources. That is why the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) was started in 2002: to get countries to agree to publish information […]

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La transparence des revenus au Gabon et en Sierra Leone: du mirage à la réalité?

Par Lavina Banduah, Directrice exécutive de Transparency Sierra Leone et Marc Ona, Coordinateur de Publiez ce que vous payez Gabon. Beaucoup des pays les plus pauvres de la planète de par le revenu par habitant sont en fait parmi les plus riches en termes de ressources naturelles. Le problème est que cette richesse ne profite […]

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Zimbabwe: Women make easy prey for corrupt politicians

Politicians in Zimbabwe are taking advantage of the fact women face existing legal limitations. Research shows that women, who often have lower incomes, have limited access to basic public services because they are less likely to pay bribes to get the services. This makes it difficult for them to acquire registration documents like a mining […]

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What Billions In Illicit And Licit Capital Flight Means For The People Of Zambia

A forthcoming report by Global Financial Integrity finds that Zambia lost US$8.8 billion in illicit financial outflows from 2001-2010

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Why doesn’t Germany support detailed transparency for the oil, mining industries?

***Update*** The US government has recently sent a letter to the German government pushing them to support the publication of payments on a project by project and not just a country by country basis. An old industrial dynasty from the German Ruhr region might play a role in blasting the envisaged transparency regulations for the […]

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Will the fruits of Africa’s commodity boom be lost to corruption?

As the prices of oil and other non-renewable commodities begin to soar once again, anti-corruption activists from DR Congo, Ghana, Liberia and Zimbabwe were in Brussels last week with the message that there is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to get their economies on a sustainable development path, a path that has been blocked by corruption in […]

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A Green Resource Curse: rare earth metals

A global trade dispute is brewing over the rare metals inside many of our favourite technologies such as smart phones or hybrid cars. Last year, an article published in Transparency International’s Climate Change edition of the Global Corruption Report warned about the corruption risks in the countries where many of these valuable raw materials are […]

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EU on the cusp of extractive transparency reforms

A newly discovered diamond field in Cameroon might contain as many as 250 million carats – 2.5 times the total world output of diamonds in 2007. The nearby village of Mparo, meanwhile, lacks running water, asphalt roads or telephones. Its mud-brick schools lack benches or books, No electricity flows through its power lines. An electrification […]

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Will the EU deliver transparency in the oil and gas sector?

Tomorrow, European Commissioners decide the final text of proposals to make it mandatory for oil, gas and mining companies listed in the EU to disclose payments to governments. Carl Dolan, policy officer for Transparency International in Brussels, calls for more pressure on Brussels to deliver strong measures. There is a depressing correlation between natural resource […]

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