The Africa Centre for Energy policy (ACEP), a leading Accra-based energy sector think-tank is saddened by the attempt by US Republican Senators to darken the global effort to ensure transparency in the governance of the extractive sector by repealing the rules on the Dodd Frank Act.
Today, the US, European Union, Canada and Norway, have rules that require their companies operating abroad to disclose payments made through taxes, royalties, contract fees and all other payments for infrastructure development and Corporate Social Responsibility to host government.
Ironically, this global effort was initiated by the US through the Dodd Frank Act in 2010 and subsequent regulations by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) through the Cardin-Lugar Transparency Rule in 2016, which provides express requirement on US companies to disclose payments to host governments.
The development of regulation on the section 1504 of Dodd Frank Act witnessed strong opposition from the business interests in the US which saw the America Petroleum Institute (API) taking the matter to court. The SEC and civil society organisations led by Oxfam America, as the Intervenor, defended the case for three years until it was thrown out in April 2016, to pave the way for Cardin-Lugar Transparency Rules to come into force.
Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam, the Executive Director of ACEP said: “Having failed in court, Some Republican Senators, including the Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have file a Congressional Review Act, seeking to annul the SEC rule on the Dodd Frank Act. This represents a travesty of important effort to improve on governance of extractive resource in poor countries where the secrecy around resource rents activates bribery, greed, corruption, extreme poverty and many other social injustices”.
Ghana, like many other countries, has been a direct beneficiary of SEC rules through contracts and payment disclosures which empowers citizens to demand accountability from their government. This “U-turn” proposed by the Senators is only an attempt to entrench minority business interest against that of the suffering masses who live the “paradox of plenty” daily, according to him.
Dr Adam therefore called on African governments to individually and/or collectively condemn this move by minority business interest to influence US Congress to roll back transparency efforts.
” The world cannot suddenly deviate from the reality that corruption and secrecy is at the heart of mismanagement of extractive resource. We also call on the Africa Union to develop its own rule to regulate companies operating in our countries to disclose payment, contracts and beneficial ownership information as a condition precedent for operating in Africa”.
African Eye Report
