NGO calls for "global oil deal"

The NGO, Christian Aid, has called for a "global oil deal" which forces oil companies and countries like Angola to publish details of payments and revenues from the lucrative trade. The report, "Fuelling Poverty: Oil, War and Corruption", found that in most oil producing countries, paradoxically, there is a direct link between the exploitation of oil, gas and minerals, and high rates of the poverty indicators of child malnutrition, low health care spending, low school enrolment rates and poor adult literacy. Authoritarian rule and conflict were also more prevalent in oil-rich countries. The report calls for the establishment of an international commission to draw up new global regulations to reverse these effects. Global measures should include allowing citizens access to details of their government's oil revenue spending, the creation of oil revenue trust funds for public benefit and a certification system to identify "blood oil". Focusing on Angola, the study said the government's secrecy over how much it earns from oil, and how it spends this money, provides ideal conditions for corruption. Although oil provides 87 percent of the country's income, it does not publish its oil revenues in the national budget, or say how the money is spent. The International Monetary Fund has estimated that of the annual US $5 billion Angola earns from oil, more than US $1 billion goes straight into private bank accounts, the report noted. This is three times the entire UN Consolidated Appeal for Angola for 2003. Currently, oil companies are only obliged to reveal payments to individual industrialised nations, with payments to countries like Angola lumped into a section called ROW - Rest of World. Moreover, secrecy clauses that the Angolan government insists oil companies sign, make public access to information on oil revenue impossible. "Huge amounts of money washing about with scant levels of accountability create the text-book conditions for corruption," the report stated. Researchers have found that, if not properly managed, oil wealth could actually cause economic contraction and inflation through high local prices, an expensive exchange rate and decreased manufacturing in other sectors. In oil-rich Cabinda, the report found, the local community lament that although there is a large foreign presence, locals are not employed in management or technical positions, but only in the lower-paid jobs of drivers, cooks and gardeners. For the full report: www.christianaid.org.uk