“What can you do?” asks the United Nations as part of International Anti-Corruption Day on 9th December. Just recently, the London Stock Exchange asked itself the same question when the rulebook for the Alternative Investment Market (AIM), its lightly-regulated junior market, came up for review. The answer was disappointing. It seems the Exchange is willing to do very little to prevent corrupt transactions on AIM.
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27 leading NGOs working on corporate transparency have published a statement calling on EU policy-makers to define companies’ disclosure obligations on sustainability issues on the occasion of a high-level conference on the future of corporate reporting hosted by the European Commission in Brussels.
A year ago, Katanga Mining Limited (TSX: KAT), a subsidiary of Glencore plc (GLEN: LN), was forced to publish an embarrassing internal audit after its activities were probed by Canada’s Ontario Securities Commission (OSC), which oversees the Toronto Stock Exchange. The audit found “material weaknesses” in financial reporting relating to the company’s activities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where Katanga Mining operates one of the richest copper and cobalt mines in the world.
op executives at Barrick Gold and Randgold Resources have been warned about human rights abuses at Acacia Mining’s North Mara Gold Mine in Tanzania ahead of the merger between the two companies due to be voted on by shareholders this week. If approved the new merger would create the largest gold mining company in the world valued at $18bn (£13.7bn).
Mining companies talk about a ‘social licence to operate’, but legitimacy in the eyes of local communities is proving hard to find at UK-listed Acacia Mining’s North Mara Gold Mine in Tanzania. On 10th October, in a Tanzanian court, a senior manager at the Mine was charged with corruption, and another former employee named, in connection with a scheme intended to compensate local people for the loss of their land taken over by the Mine. Six government and village officials were also charged with receiving pay-offs from the Mine. It is alleged that one inducement allowed the Mine to avoid the costly rebuilding of a primary school.
A British government assessment released today has found Kazakh mining giant, Eurasian Resources Group (ERG, formerly ENRC), flouted the rights of several thousand people living on its cobalt and copper concession in the Democratic Republic of Congo, depriving them of clean water and health care.
Tanzanian and international human rights groups today urged London- listed Acacia Mining’s Board of Directors to step in to improve the company’s human rights record at its North Mara Gold Mine in Tanzania. Acacia’s is 63.9 % owned by Canada’s Barrick Gold Corporation.
Tanzanian and international human rights groups today urged Tanzanian president John Magufuli to address human rights issues at Acacia’s North Mara Gold Mine as part of the framework agreement with Barrick Gold Corporation, announced last week. The seven rights groups detailed their request in an open letter sent to the president.
International policy makers are meeting in Europe and Washington, D.C. this week to consider the deteriorating economic and political situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo. They will need to confront a stark truth: the growing evidence linking President Joseph Kabila, his family and close associates to bribery and corruption.
The United States and European Union should expand targeted sanctions on President Joseph Kabila’s family members and financial associates benefiting from unlawful activity in the Democratic Republic of Congo, seven international and Congolese human rights organizations said today. The sanctions should target those involved in serious corruption, misuse of government funds, money laundering, or fraud in order to quash peaceful dissent, improperly delay elections, or otherwise maintain Kabila’s rule beyond the constitution’s two-term limit.