Publish What You Pay: Moral Questions Loom Larger as Economies Globalize
Alexa Smith, Associate for Joining Hands Presbytery Support
Oral arguments were held earlier this month in Washington, D.C., in an oil industry lawsuit seeking to overturn a U.S. rule requiring oil, gas and mining companies to report their payments to foreign governments to the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) for natural resource rights.
This is a landmark piece of legislation that is being replicated around the globe in efforts to address systemic poverty, including the European Union, Canada and Australia.
Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron calls often for more transparency in reporting the flow of money in corporate and governmental operations, insisting it is key to poorer countries moving out of poverty to growth.
More than 70 Presbyterian Church (USA) presbyteries worked on behalf of the legislation at the request of African partners of the Presbyterian Hunger Program after the denomination was committed to the campaign by action of the 2008 General Assembly in San Jose, CA.
The World Communion of Reformed Churches has also lent its voice to this effort. Government officials, NGO’s and other policy wonks have submitted legal briefs to the Court of Appeals for the District of Colombia Circuit Court defending the transparency law for months now. The hearing was under way Friday morning, March 22, and a verdict is expected within 30 days.
Several clergy in National Capitol Presbytery were present for the arguments, representing the PCUSA. Others present included Oxfam America, the Sierra Club and the One Campaign.
The SEC regulation – which was required by the Cardin-Lugar provision of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Act – follows the Congressional intent of the law, which is twofold:
- To bolster civil society in oil-rich nations by enabling citizens to hold corrupt government officials accountable for siphoning off billions annually for oil and mineral rights.
- To provide investors with project-level information to ensure that monies do no harm.
The suit was filed by the American Petroleum Institute (API), the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Independent Petroleum Association of America and the National Foreign Trade Council are challenging the rulemaking.
Eugene Scalia of the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, is representing the oil industry and has won several cases against the SEC on challenging rules established related to the Dodd-Frank Act. He is the son of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
In a letter to the API dated Feb. 27, PCUSA Stated Clerk the Rev. Gradye Parsons urged the lobby organization and its allies to drop the suit, stating that “moral questions only loom larger as our economies globalize and seek increasingly short-term gains” and that the church is often left to pick up the pieces amidst violence, corruption and poverty that are left in the wake of the “the resource curse,” a well-documented trend that shows how resource-rich countries are vulnerable to instability and rampant poverty as corrupt leaders siphon off dollars for personal gain.
He said that the API could bolster credibility with the public by behaving differently in this moment and could claim good corporate citizenship by enabling transparency to boost the GDP of “fragile, developing nations,” to assist investors with clear project-level information so that well-intended money does no harm and to encourage stable, democratic government abroad capable of equipping its citizens with information to hold policy-makers accountable.
Watch Video Financial transparency in Ghana: What are big oil companies hiding?
