Save the Children UK director Mike Aaronson said, -Today’s call is a major step in the campaign to combat corruption and child poverty. Much of the foreign investment in the world’s least developed countries is in the oil, mining and gas sector. By reporting in those countries on the revenues they pay governments, companies uphold public financial accountability and help create the enabling environment for successful development and child poverty reduction.”
Simon Taylor, director of the Nobel Prize nominated NGO Global Witness, argued that getting companies to publish what they pay is central to tackling vested economic interests in many conflicts where political and economic disorder from fighting is used as a cover to plunder resource revenues. He said, -Our investigations in war-torn Angola suggest that at least US$1 billion every year for the last five years – about one-third of state income – went missing from the government’s coffers, most of which came from oil. If companies like ChevronTexaco and TotalfinaElf do not reveal how much money they are paying, then it is impossible for Angolan citizens to find out how much is missing.”
Mr Julius Ihonvbere from the Africa Centre for Constitutional Development in Nigeria highlighted how unaccountable oil revenues were central to propping up Abacha’s reign of terror: -In Africa, we face a situation where billions of dollars from oil, mining and gas revenues go missing leaving us dependent on international assistance to feed our people. If governments make the bold step to support this campaign, it
has the potential to bring huge improvements to the health and development of the people living in many of the countries in the region. After all, you cannot manage what you cannot measure”.