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afrol.com, 13 February - One year after Global Witness published its report "A Crude Awakening", which examined massive corruption in Angola and the role of the oil and banking industries, BP has become the first oil company to make a decisive and welcome gesture for transparency in the war-torn country. Also the Angolan government is now encouraging increased transparency in the oil sector. According to the NGO Global Witness, "the scale of corruption in Angola is very high, where the war has been privatised to the vested interests of top Angolan officials. There is no press freedom to question this situation." There is no data available to Angolans to hold their Government to account for its actions and expenditure. Global Witness has long argued that the oil companies operating in Angola, but which are not transparent about their payments to Government, are complicit in the wholesale robbery of the Angolan State. This is because they are not providing data about their payments to the Angolan Government, when they clearly could do so - in stark contrast to the data they already provide in their reports in the developed world. BP is the first company to recognise that this situation must change, providing a useful step in the process of matching company practice to the rhetoric of the company re-branding process. In a letter dated 6th February 2001 to Global Witness, BP Group Managing Director Richard Olver stated in addition to maintaining a regular dialogue with both the World Bank and IMF over Angola, that the company would publish the following information annually on their operations in Angola: 1. Total net production by Block. - BP have made an excellent move, said Simon Taylor of Global Witness. "This will not have been an easy decision for them, but it is clear that they have recognised the need to end corporate complicity in the state rip-off we are seeing in Angola today. - It follows that there is now no excuse for the other companies in Angola not to do the same. So to that end, we are challenging the leadership of other responsible oil companies to publish this data. This decision follows a one year dialogue with various oil companies involved in Angola. This dialogue has also from time to time involved other NGO's such as Save the Children Fund, Oxfam and Transparency International, and has involved a meeting hosted by the UK Government. - In light of the inadequacy of the current remit of the IMF's Staff Monitored Programme1 to deliver transparency in Angola, it is hard to over-emphasise the importance of this move by BP, said Taylor. "We will be focusing on the likes of Shell, Norsk Hydro, Statoil, Exxon, Chevron, TotalFinaElf, Agip, Petrogal, Ranger Oil and all the other companies operating in Angola, to be transparent about their payments to the Angolan Government". - We believe that President Bush, as an oil man himself, has a particular responsibility to ensure that oil giants Chevron and Exxon are as transparent about their payments in Angola, as they are obliged to be in the US. The report 'A Crude Awakening' had documented how Angola's long suffering population are being systematically abused in favour of corporate profits and personal gain. "As Angola is set for a massive US$ 18 billion in oil company investment over the next four years, the starving and war-torn population will see little if no benefit from these vast investments in terms of the most basic human needs," thus said Simon Taylor of Global Witness. "Instead vast sums are being siphoned off by Angola's key players, whom we have named "the Oiligarchy". Since 1996 Angola's oil sector has announced some 26 major oil discoveries, accounting for more than 6 billion barrels of reserves. Oil exploration in Angola's waters has been fast-paced and furious, making Angola the oil exploration hot spot in the world. After four years of break-neck exploration, Angola is now slowing down production rates and preparing for more control and transparancy in the sector. Finance Minister Julio Bessa recently announced that there will npw be conducted "a diagnostic study of the oil industry." The diagnostic study is part of a series of economic reforms negotiated with the International Monetary Fund under a Staff Monitoring Program. "The diagnostic will encourage increased transparency and accountability within the petroleum sector," according to a government statement.
Source: Based on Global Witness, MISAnet, Angolan Govt. and afrol archives
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