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Sierra Leone - Popularizing EITI
NACE (National Advocacy Coalition on the Extractives) have implemented various awareness raising initiatives to popularize EITI in Sierra Leone.
One of the criticisms levelled at Sierra Leone in their latest EITI validator report was that the EITI process had not been well disseminated in the country. In a bid to remedy this – and to move closer to EITI compliance - NACE has realised different schemes to educate the public and raise awareness of EITI. They held workshops to teach the public about EITI, the reconciliation report and Sierra Leone’s mining laws. NACE also created posters explaining the purpose of EITI which were widely circulated. For additional visual dissemination, they installed large billboards with basic information on the EITI process. A billboard has been installed in each district in the country as well as in the capital Freetown. Radio was also used as a medium, with jingles in local languages being aired in a
number of radio stations across the country.
Raising awareness and understanding of the EITI process has been a challenge for many EITI countries, some of whom face the added dimension of having to disseminate information in areas where many different languages are spoken, or where communications infrastructure can be weak.
View the posters
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ECCR report on UK and Irish banks criticises tax avoidance and advocates country-by-country reporting
In its new report The Banks and Society: Rebuilding Trust, PWYP member the Ecumenical Council for Corporate Responsibility (ECCR) urges banks to report on a country-by-country basis on all taxes they pay on their profits, as well as ensuring that customers are aware of their own tax obligations and refusing to provide tax planning that does not serve genuine business transactions. ECCR’s report draws on work published by other civil society organisations as well as new research, documenting concerns about the financial sector’s domestic and global impacts on communities and the environment. Report available free for download at
www.eccr.org.uk/banksandsociety.
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South Korea: a new frontier for legislation equivalent to Dodd-Frank 1504?
The South Korean National Assembly is currently debating legislation to introduce mandatory financial reporting for extractive companies. In December 2010, Legislator Seung Soo Cho of the New Progressive Party introduced an amendment to the Overseas Resources Development Act. This amendment requires all enterprises participating in overseas resources development to submit an annual business report to the Financial Services Commission, covering contract, payment and expenses data. The FSC would then disclose these details to the public and to the National Assembly.
This amendment was discussed in a seminar in the Korean National Assembly on March 23, 2011. Legislator Cho, Paul Donowitz from EarthRights International/PWYP US, laywer Pilkyu Hwang and Professor Kyunsing Park spoke in favour of the bill, providing information on the resource curse, Dodd-Frank 1504 (on which the bill was modelled) and gave the example of Burma as a case study of why this bill needs to happen now. Indeed, interest in transparency in the extractive sector in South Korea was raised by the harmful effects of South Korean companies in Burma.
Earth Rights International published a report in March detailing violations committed by Korean and Chinese companies along the Burma-China pipeline.
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Perspective Survey on Extractive Industry in Cambodia
PWYP member, Cambodians for Resource Revenue Transparency sponsored a study to obtain the views of small and medium enterprises on the extractive industry in Cambodia. This study focuses on whether participants believed new resource revenues entering the Cambodian economy from the extractive industry would be harmful or beneficial to their businesses, the overall business environment and general population.
Download the report
Download the policy paper
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Indigenous People’s national summit in the Philippines calls for a revision of mining procedures
A national summit of Indigenous Peoples in the Philippines concluded with a resolution calling for immediate suspension of the processing of Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) for major mining projects, and a recommendation that an alternative bill upholding the rights of indigenous peoples should replace the Mining Act of 1995.
Participants at the three day summit, which gathered over 140 participants from 56 tribes and organizations, argued that their rights to self-determination had been violated by mining and dam projects. The FPIC granting process reflects the principle that communities have the right to give or withhold their consent for projects that may affect the land they customarily own, occupy or use. Yet Indigenous organizations stated that multi-billion peso projects had gone ahead despite their strong opposition to these plans. Groups urged for a moratorium on large-scale mining. The chair of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, Roque Agton, said he agreed the FPIC guidelines needed to be changed.
Filipino PWYP member Bantay Kita is advocating for transparency all along the value chain including the decision on whether or not to extract. Transparency in the allocation of certificates is crucial if communities are to be empowered with a real say concerning the extractive activities in their area.
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New Coalition being launched in the United States on Accountability and Corporate Transparency
The Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) coalition is in the process of being launched. As the name indicates, FACT is a campaign to achieve greater financial accountability and transparency within financial institutions, corporations and government. This new coalition is working for greater openness in all sectors
in order to tackle the massive amounts of revenue which are lost due to secrecy in the financial system (which facilitates corruption, tax evasion and money laundering). Among the priorities of the new coalition in the United States is a call for country-by-country reporting by multi-national corporations of the sales made, profits earned and taxes paid in every jurisdiction where an entity operates. Publish What You Pay welcomes the imminent launch of the FACT coalition!
For further information, please contact Nicole Tichon, Executive Director of Tax Justice Network USA.
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Aperio!
PWYP Canada have released the latest issue of their newsletter Aperio. Articles include :
‘The Dodd-Frank Act: A Catalyst for Increasing Calls to Improve Transparency’
A summary of the new PWYP-Canada capacity building project
A summary of the EITI Conference in Paris
As well as information on Partnership Africa Canada’s work with the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region’s (ICGLR) Regional Certification Mechanism for conflict minerals.
Read the newsletter in English
Lisez ce bulletin en Français
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Job Opps
PWYP member, Cambodians for Resource Revenue Transparency (CRRT) seeks an experienced consultant to conduct evaluation of coalition performance as the first step for creating a new strategic plan for two-year-old coalition.
Applicants should have:
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experience in conducting organizational evaluations involving multiple stakeholders;
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excellent organizational, communications and leadership skills;
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demonstrated familiarity with extractive industries (oil, gas and mining);
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ability to work independently and quickly;
The contract engagement will be 22 working days (one calendar month), and will include considerable time interviewing and gathering data, then presenting findings to coalition members and board.
For more information contact the CRRT Coordinator
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