confidentially speaking
The Africa Confidential Blog
Transparent defiance
Blue Lines
A vote by the United States House of Representatives to end the legal requirement that compels oil
and mining companies to disclose all payments to foreign governments is
a tactical defeat for anti-corruption campaigners. That's partly
because of highly effective lobbying by US oil giant ExxonMobil. All
this lobbying was on the watch of Rex
Tillerson as Chief Executive of ExxonMobil, who is now President
Donald Trump's Secretary of
State.
The company’s filings with the US Securities and Exchange
Commission do not reveal any direct role by Tillerson in the lobbying
but evidently he didn't support the 'Publish What You Pay' law. In
fact, the start of the Publish What You Pay campaign dates back to
ExxonMobil's involvement in one of the most egregious examples of
corporate-state collusion in diverting resources revenue in Equatorial Guinea (AC Vol 45 No 15, Private
estate). The scandal was the subject of a detailed US Senate
investigation, which tracked payments said to have originated from
ExxonMobil, Marathon Oil and Amerada Hess to individuals representing
President Teodoro Obiang and
family. The funds ended up in special
accounts in Riggs Bank in Washington DC. At the time, companies could
make payments to foreign governments at will under US law, but Riggs
Bank was found complicit in money laundering and went out of business
shortly afterwards. The next target in some US politicians' sights is
the groundbreaking Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977.
