At present the Angolan oil industry is the chief target of an international campaign involving governments and civil society in both the north and the south, and many major oil corporations, to establish a framework for more transparency in the extractive industries. In short, many of the organizations in the alliance are pushing for companies to publish all their payments to the GoA. This is due to a perceived lack of transparency and economic mismanagement, as alleged in documents such as Global Witness’s “A Crude Awakening (2000)” and “All the President’s Men (2002)”. The 2002 round of Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index rated Angola as amongst the five most corrupt countries (in a list of 102) as perceived by business people, risk analysts, and the general public.
There is a general sense that the GoA is more concerned with national pressure than international pressure. Angolans tend to believe that the international press and community distort issues. There is some measure of domestic consensus that monies allegedly diverted during the years of civil war may have been necessary for the defense of the population. In keeping with this, now that the war is over, this is the time to introduce issues of transparency and accountability.
This report does not pass comment on the validity or otherwise of those reports and the mission was not tasked to do so. Our aim is to address this concern from the point of view of ensuring that oil revenue is managed for optimal social benefit. In any country, transparency is a key ingredient in that.
All of the companies we spoke to were keen to state that they complied fully with the terms of their operations as set out in their Production Sharing Agreement (PSA). Any information beyond the PSA might breach the PSA clauses on confidentially. Several companies did admit that the lack of transparent business practices in Angola was damaging their reputations overseas. However, the companies are unanimously reluctant to meddle in the affairs of state and raise this issue. “It is not really the role of a foreign oil company to tell the GoA its business.” The foreign oil companies would be willing, in principle, to disclose their payments to government, but will not do so unilaterally.
Sonangol stated to us that, whilst they could improve some things, the data required were available and that, due to their strong international reputation, they had no problem attracting project finance at favorable rates.
All parties agreed with the basic principle of improved transparency and that it should underpin any proposal that is taken forward. The Bank will work with the Government and other partners in tackling transparency and governance issues through a variety of instruments, such as the proposed Economic Management Technical Assistance credit, the ongoing Country Procurement Assessment and the forthcoming Public Expenditure Management and Financial Accountability Review, as well as this CSR technical assistance work.
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