19 December 2019.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) voted yesterday to release a proposal for an oil and mining payment transparency rule which falls far below the global standard...Also known as the Cardin-Lugar provision, it was once a beacon of US leadership in the global fight against oil and mining corruption. The SEC’s new draft implementation rule, however, would utterly fail to safeguard against corruption in the extractives sector and appears instead to be a massive handout to the oil and gas industry...

“Our grade for this proposed SEC rule: 'F'. Big Oil interests including the American Petroleum Institute have applied intense pressure to allow oil and gas companies to operate in opacity, and they’ve clearly made their mark. This proposal is riddled with loopholes, and eliminates meaningful reporting at the level of individual projects. In 25 years of investigating this sector, Global Witness has found time and again how transparency at the deal-making level is instrumental in deterring corrupt transactions...[says Zorka Milin, Senior Policy Advisor at Global Witness.]...

The SEC’s previous attempt to implement the Cardin-Lugar provision was overturned by Congress and President Trump in 2017. But Congress did not repeal the underlying statute that still requires SEC implementation, and Congressional disapproval of the previous rule does not justify such a complete gutting of the law, which is not defensible as a legal matter because it fails to meet the anti-corruption intent of the original law...