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Raymond Baker

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Why Oil Exporting Countries Need Transparency

Posted: 02/14/2012 12:14 pm

Corruption and secrecy in the oil, gas and mining industries takes a serious toll on developing and emerging economies. It negatively affects human rights, governance, global development and security.

A provision of the new Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation shines a light on the deals that oil, gas and mining companies make with foreign governments, however oil executives are lobbying the Securities and Exchange Commission for special exemptions for themselves in this new law.

We've compiled a slideshow of the top 10 oil exporting countries and listed the cost that corruption and financial opacity has on each country's economy. This is a serious problem, and we must ensure that the SEC issues strong proposals that don't exempt oil companies from this important law.

Flip through the slideshow and then click here to take action and learn more.

10. Libya
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Libya, the 10th biggest exporter of oil in the developing world, lost US$43.32 billion in illicit financial outflows from 2000-2009, according to Global Financial Integrity.

Above: Civilians celebrate atop a revolutionary forces tank near Sirte, Libya, Sunday, Sept. 25, 2011. (AP Photo/Manu Brabo)
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Corruption and secrecy in the oil, gas and mining industries takes a serious toll on developing and emerging economies. It negatively affects human rights, governance, global development and security.
Corruption and secrecy in the oil, gas and mining industries takes a serious toll on developing and emerging economies. It negatively affects human rights, governance, global development and security.
 
 
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05:03 PM on 02/14/2012
Most countries in the list provided are way beyond salvation, for the provision of the new Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation to mean anything at all. What can for instance transparency help when for instance in the case of Venezuela, more than 95 percent of all the export revenues are sent to the chieftain of turn to decide on how to spend these.

On the contrary that provision of the Dodd-Frank Act makes a direct reference to EITI, an organization that, as its 2nd principle states: “We affirm that management of natural resource wealth for the benefit of a country’s citizens is in the domain of sovereign governments to be exercised in the interests of their national development.”

Though most of the oil in the US has been exploited by the private sector, and it adheres to free market principles, the US Congress is therefore lending credibility to an organization, which is lending credibility to the notion that oil revenues should be managed by authoritarian petrocrats and oilygarchs like hugo chávez.

As an oil-cursed citizen, fighting for oil revenue sharing, I find that very sad.

http://theoilcurse.blogspot.com/
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10:06 PM on 02/14/2012
And both the author and the bill only cover a portion of the problem. The other part is all the offshore banking and tax havens. The money get taken straight out of the democratic system. Nigeria should be free of all poverty; or at least not in debt....