TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search resultsOxfam complains of continued lack of transparency in oil payments
Delays to the Dodd-Frank Act, a landmark US transparency law, have limited the transparency of oil payments to governments, according to Oxfam America
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
D
elays to the Dodd-Frank Act, a landmark US transparency law, have limited the transparency of oil payments to governments, according to Oxfam America.
The charity said in a recent analysis that in the five years since the Dodd-Frank Act was passed, oil produced in developing countries had been worth an estimated US$1.55 trillion for the governments of those countries.
Without payment transparency, Oxfam America president Raymond C Offenheiser said, keeping track of payments and holding governments accountable was next to impossible for citizens of developing countries.
'With payments for oil and mining projects out in the open, citizens can demand their governments spend these funds in the communities where drilling is taking place, using it to fight extreme poverty and build roads, schools and hospitals,' Offenheiser said on Tuesday.
'With secrecy, funds may be lost to corruption and waste, as we have historically seen in oil-rich countries still suffering from high rates of poverty and low development,' he went on.
July 21 marks five years since Section 1504 was passed. There is no implementing rule in sight, however, thanks to foot dragging by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and aggressive lobbying and legal challenges by oil industry laggards.
Oxfam says the law is meant to support US national and energy security by helping to stabilize strategically important energy markets and by stemming the flow of money into the bank accounts of corrupt elites.
It says the law will also protect investors by giving them information they can use to assess investment risks and allows citizens in aid-dependent countries to follow the money generated by their own natural resources sector in the hopes they might graduate from US aid in the future.
The American Petroleum Institute is one of the biggest opponents of the law; Oxfam claims the body has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on lobbying in the past five years.
'With this huge sum at stake, it's crucial that we have transparency for these payments,' said Oxfam America senior policy manager Ian Gary.
'The Securities and Exchange Commission has the power to end secrecy from US-listed companies, and needs to obey the law and finish the job with strong rules. The US must resume its leadership on transparency.' (ebf)(++++)
