[Executive Summary] Under the Surface: Looking into payments by oil, gas and mining companies to governments
In 2013, the EU passed new transparency and accountability legislation requiring large oil, gas, mining and logging companies that are listed and registered in the EU to disclose their revenue payments to governments around the world...
The European Commission (EC) is currently reviewing this legislation... Transparency International EU (TI EU) has looked at the evidence regarding implementation and enforcement of legislation... The goal of this report is to help the EC make an informed review of current practice.
KEY FINDINGS
The EU legislation has significantly improved transparency and accountability in a highly opaque sector...
Our research highlights the value of the EU’s new revenue transparency rules... The research also demonstrates the value of the EU Directive when it comes to shedding light on companies that are neither headquartered nor listed in the EU and are currently not subject to any mandatory disclosure laws in the jurisdictions where they are headquartered...
The report finds areas of concern in companies’ reporting and a number of significant weaknesses, both in the legislation itself and in the practice of implementing companies and the discrepancies between the way companies report. These weaknesses represent limitations in terms of achieving the overall objective of the adopted transparency and accountability measures, which is to enhance public understanding of extractive companies’ activities and payments.