How To Halt Graft In Oil, Gas Industry, By TI

TO bring an end to corruption in the oil and industry globally, both International Oil Companies (IOCs) and National Oil Companies (NOCs) must ensure they adopt detailed anti-corruption programmes available to the public.This is one of the key recommendations in a report titled; Promoting Revenue Transparency: 2011 Report On Oil And Gas Companies.The report, which was written by the Revenue Watch Institute and Transparency International, strongly recommends that companies review their reporting on anti-corruption programmes according to the Transparency International UN Global Compact (TI ' UNGC) Reporting Guidance on the 10th Principle against corruption.The report noted that while several IOCs already meet the criteria, except for independent external assurance, it noted that several NOC were yet to adopt the principles of transparency in their operations.'Some companies still do not make their codes of conduct publicly available. We strongly recommend that all such documents be published on websites, with no password protection.The report further said:'Companies should undertake voluntary independent assurance of anti-corruption programmes'Corruption is a major risk factor of concern for companies and their stakeholders. We encourage companies to undertake voluntary independent assurance along the lines of the TI Framework for Voluntary Independent Assurance.'The report recommended that such a practice would assist companies in formulating and implementing proper programmes, while providing an objective and comparable assessment of a company's anti-corruption efforts.'Companies should make public details of their subsidiaries, both fully and non-fully consolidated, including subsidiaries' countries of incorporation and parent companies' interests. The same should hold for information on companies' fields of operations, their interests and partners. All such information should be clearly stated and easily accessible on the companies' websites.
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