Transparency needed over oil accounts

The campaign group Global Witness has called on the Angolan government to introduce greater transparency and accountability over its oil accounts to end the alleged "full-scale embezzlement" of oil revenues. The London-based organisation, which focuses on the links between the exploitation of natural resources and the funding of conflict, said its investigations "have revealed that individuals connected with Angola's presidency benefit financially from nearly every item consumed in the war against UNITA ... Meanwhile, the UN was left to scrape together US $200 million to feed the one million displaced people who depend on emergency food aid in Angola". President Jose Eduardo dos Santos is due to hold talks with President George Bush in Washington on Tuesday. "When they meet, President Bush must call President dos Santos of Angola to account over Angola's failed state and the full-scale embezzlement of oil money by its ruling elite," a Global Witness statement said. Oil revenues constitute between 80-90 percent of Angola's income, however, international oil companies such as ChevronTexaco and ExxonMobil refuse to publish what they pay to the country. This means that ordinary Angolan citizens have no information to call their government to account over the misuse of state funds, the statement added. "International oil companies in Angola deliberately reject the transparent behaviour that is accepted as normal in the developed world. Meanwhile, one child dies every three minutes of preventable causes in this war-ravaged country whilst the ruling elite embezzle the funds that would keep these children alive," alleged Global Witness director Simon Taylor. A report by an International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission to Angola in early February said that discussions with the authorities on transparency included tighter auditing mechanisms between the oil parastatal Sonangol and the central bank. "In relation to the transparency of government operations, the discussions centred on the need to ... record and transfer to the treasury all revenues, including the total amount of signature oil bonuses; ensure that all foreign currency receipts and government revenues, including Sonangol receipts, are channelled through the central bank as mandated by the law; eliminate all subsidy and tax arrears to and from Sonangol; publish data on oil and other government revenues and expenditures, as well as on external debt; and conduct independent financial audits of the 2001 accounts of Sonangol and of the central bank."