Africa suffers deficit in governing oil, mining sectors – Report
Despite fine laws and regulations put in place to promote transparency, resource-rich African countries fall short in governing their natural resources especially in the mining and oil sectors, a new report published May 15, 2013 has observed.
Released by the Revenue Watch Institute (RWI), the report which has an Index attached, noted that many African nations have laws designed to promote accountability in the oil and mining sector, but nevertheless suffer from troubling gaps in natural resource governance.
The report’s Resource Governance Index measures the quality of governance in the oil, gas and mining sectors of 58 countries worldwide. Each country on the Index was judged on four criteria – legal framework, transparency levels, checks and balances and its broader governance context.
Seventeen countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) were in the Index many of which are highly dependent on natural resources.
Based on the Index’s four criteria, “no country in the region (SSA) earned a satisfactory score for resource governance.”
It added that in 11 out of the 17 African countries, “good governance policies exist but are not practiced”. The report for instance cited Guinea and Angola as having detailed oil laws but scored low in the overall rankings.
“The Index research reveals a governance deficit in how transparent and accountable countries are with their natural resources,” said Daniel Kaufmann, President of the Revenue Watch Institute.
Few African governments, the report observed, provide the detailed data citizens need to track their country’s earnings but countries such as Botswana,Gabon, Sierra Leone and Nigeria do not publish contract terms or full data on production and revenues.
The report further stated that DR Congo, Mozambique, Cameroon, South Sudan, Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea do not have effective monitoring, and lawmakers rarely review resource revenues.
The report said countries in SSA should pass and enforce freedom of information laws and require companies and government agencies to disclose detailed information on the oil and mining industries which it believes is an essential first step toward public accountability.
By Ekow Quandzie