World Bank official urges govt to renegotiate mining contracts
World Bank official urges govt to renegotiate mining contractsBy Speedwell Mupuchi
Thursday March 29, 2007 [02:01]
SENIOR advisor to the World Bank on corruption Eva Jolly yesterday said she was very shocked to see Zambia being deprived of rent from its land through the mining contracts. And Jolly said time was up for Zambia to renegotiate the mining contracts. Addressing members of the African Parliamentary Network Against Corruption (APNAC) at Parliament yesterday, Jolly said some Western companies were plundering African countries by using corruption to get good contracts. "They are honourable but they are using corruption to get good contracts. Corruption is still in use despite the fact that now we have an international convention forbidding it," she said. Jolly urged people to fight for transparency in the so-called tax haven as they fight corruption.
She also said senators in the US estimate that they are deprived about US $40 billion a year through tax havens which she said were also used for transfer pricing. "I think this is an interesting question for Zambia because you have contracts in mining industry which require getting tax on results but it is very difficult to calculate what this result is," she said. "Probably you don't have specialised people to look into the mining companies. It's much safer for you probably to have loyalties than to have taxation on the benefits. Then you can have loyalty on each tonne of copper being exported. It is then easier to control."
Jolly said she was very shocked with Zambia's mining contracts. "Looking at them, I am very shocked that Zambia is being deprived of rent of its land. I think maybe time has come to renegotiate these contracts. These contracts are depriving you of too much," she said. She said Zambia had several arguments to take forward over the issue. "If you can prove that these contracts were elaborated with corruption within them, they can be cancelled... If you can prove that the negotiators from the Zambian side were paid from the mining industry then you can cancel them," she said. "That is the most dramatic way of doing it."
Jolly said there were 70 tax heavens with a third of world wealth. She explained that these are places where authorities do not co-operate with judicial authorities. She noted that money from African countries was getting into European banks without problems. She said huge Western companies were using corruption of African leaders in their own interest. Jolly said till 2003 when the United Nations Convention against corruption was put in place, most countries could still keep money corruptly obtained from other countries.
Jolly also noted Zambia was getting help to retrieve money allegedly stolen by former president Frederick Chiluba. He said lawyers that helped Chiluba's money laundering were not satisfied that the international community was helping Zambia get the money. She said the lawyers were not satisfied because they were used to laundering money and that the case was symbolic and must be carried out because it was self-financing as the country could get the money back. "And you have to win because this is the first time you have democracy, you can really have a conviction of a former leader to pay back the money," she said.
Jolly said although it was expensive, Zambians needed to be steadfast. She said she was working with the World Bank to have a permanent revolving fund for asset recovery. She also said it was important for Zambia to have a non-corrupt and well-functioning anti-corruption and money laundering institution. Jolly, now a former Norwegian-French examining magistrate who served for 20 years as a judge, proposed an establishment of a Financial Intelligence Unit that would monitor financial flaws in and out of the country.
Mbabala UDA member of parliament Emmanuel Hachipuka said he could not comprehend how the National Assembly could be made to allow the development agreements to be above the Zambian constitution. He said he felt President Mwanawasa and the Speaker of the National Assembly had roles to play to state that the bill on mining contracts was ultra vires the constitution.
Hachipuka wondered how it was possible to arm-twist Parliament to the extent of placing development agreements above the constitution.
APNAC chairperson Given Lubinda announced that his organisation would start mobilising resources to deal with issues of the mining agreements. Regional Parliamentarian Network against corruption representative Catherine Namugala said corruption was to a large extent responsible for Zambia's poverty. She passionately appealed for help to repatriate resources from Western countries to address poverty and disease in Zambia.
Labels: APNAC, EVA JOLLY, MINING, MINING CONTRACTS, World Bank
posted by MrK @ 3:46 AM
2 Comments:
COMMENT - " Jolly said some Western companies were plundering African countries by using corruption to get good contracts. "
W.O.W.!!!
I guess not everyone at the World Bank is a raging neoliberal after all. And from the horse's mouth too - these mining contracts were entered into under corrupt circumstances. Someone must have been taking bribes - who could that have been?
Let's have a task force investigate the mining contracts.
" It's much safer for you probably to have loyalties than to have taxation on the benefits. Then you can have loyalty on each tonne of copper being exported. It is then easier to control." "
Did she really phrase it that way? But I completely agree with the statement - it is much easier to monitor the outgoing trucks with copper or copper ore, and tax or levy those, than to tax 'profit'.
I hope everyone understands how big this is. The mining contracts are being questioned on a constitutional basis in parliament.
"If you can prove that these contracts were elaborated with corruption within them, they can be cancelled... If you can prove that the negotiators from the Zambian side were paid from the mining industry then you can cancel them," she said. "That is the most dramatic way of doing it."
Now we only need people with integrity, who haven't taken money.
These contracts MUST be cancelled, and with an honest government, which would put the interest of Zambia and the people of Zambia first, they would fight for the mines with their last breath.
So let's see it happen.
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