Publish What You Pay criticized the current version of instructions for disclosure of British Industry
March 23, 2015
Guide to the Rules of British Industry reporting on payments to governments is being prepared on behalf of the International Association of Oil and Gas (IOGP) and the International Council on Mining & Metals (ICMM). According PWYP, key elements in the current version of branch instructions very questionable and discredit intended to assist reporting companies under the Act. The approach to reporting instructions encourages companies to report in a way that is inconsistent with the law and keep the payments withheld from the public. Despite appeals, the industry still refuses to change those elements that are substituted in responsible companies.
The current instruction assumes that only the joint venture operator must report payments made on behalf of joint venture partners, and other partners should not do that. Legal opinion argues that this interpretation of the law is "inaccurate", "wrong" with no legal basis, extremely poor ... and misleading. "
Reporting only operator allows you to hide large payments, such as the right to produce projects with operators outside the EU, even where participating EU companies. In kleptocratic state of Angola, for example, payments of about US $ 7,5 billion a year from EU companies can not be disclosed under the current instruction. In addition, payments for the right to produce about 17 projects in Brazil will be excluded from reporting.
The Regulations also indicates that two or more legal agreements can be presented in a single project, even if they are not "promptly and geographically integrated." Legal opinion argues that this view is "misleading and wrong is" that could result "in violation of the Rules."
Profiles licensing resursovydobuvnyh countries generally use standard form agreement on distribution and standard licenses. Combining payments only on the basis of contracts with "substantially similar terms" will set unreasonably low threshold for reporting on projects. "Payments, events and projects can not be artificially separated or stacked", "disclosure should reflect the essence rather than the form, each payment corresponding activity or project."
Publish What You Pay believes that user instructions for the industry as it stands puts the responsibility of risk. This guide is irresponsible and should not be published or in any way positively regarded by the UK government.
March 23, 2015
"Ukrainian enerehtyka", Proceedings of PWYP