{"id":17743,"date":"2012-10-11T10:03:07","date_gmt":"2012-10-11T09:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=17743"},"modified":"2012-10-11T10:03:07","modified_gmt":"2012-10-11T09:03:07","slug":"the-oil-industry-wants-to-maintain-secrecy-so-it-can-maintain-the-culture-of-corruption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2012\/10\/11\/the-oil-industry-wants-to-maintain-secrecy-so-it-can-maintain-the-culture-of-corruption\/","title":{"rendered":"The oil industry wants to maintain secrecy so it can maintain the culture of corruption"},"content":{"rendered":"

The American Petroleum Institute - representing all the major US oil companies - has\u00a0launched\u00a0a law suit <\/a>against the SEC in the USA to block the introduction of\u00a0country-by-country reporting of tax payments made by the oil\u00a0industry\u00a0that is now being demanded under section 1504 of the Dodds Frank Act.<\/p>\n

The only goal of that limited\u00a0country-by-country reporting\u00a0disclosure\u00a0is to beat\u00a0corruption. It has, unfortunately, no other use as the disclosure is somewhat limited.<\/p>\n

But the oil industry wants to stop that disclosure - and is spending a\u00a0fortune\u00a0to\u00a0achieve\u00a0that goal.<\/p>\n

There's\u00a0only\u00a0one\u00a0possible\u00a0explanation, and that is that\u00a0corruption\u00a0permitted by secrecy pays them\u00a0and\u00a0so they want to keep it.<\/p>\n

This is a\u00a0battle\u00a0they have to lose, for the sake of the people of developing\u00a0countries, for the sake of\u00a0transparency, for the sake of good\u00a0governance, for the benefit of their stockholders, and for the sake of the rule of law.<\/p>\n

But then, when did any of those things matter to an oil company executive?<\/p>\n

I'm proud that my work on country-by-country reporting <\/a>over the last decade\u00a0lead to section 1504. I'm grateful for the tireless efforts of those who made that happen. We were all motivated by a concern for those in the\u00a0poorest\u00a0countries of the world who have never seen the benefit of the oil, gas, minerals and timber that their countries export. Some clearly want to keep it that way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The American Petroleum Institute – representing all the major US oil companies – has\u00a0launched\u00a0a law suit against the SEC in the USA to block the
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