Maravi

Aid group calls for effective laws in copper industry

Aid group calls for effective laws in copper industry
By Florence Bupe
Monday November 05, 2007 [03:00]

GOVERNMENT needs to put in place effective domestic legislation and regulation in order to effectively counter malpractices in the copper industry, the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund (SCIAF) has recommended. SCIAF, through a report themed ‘Undermining Development: Copper Mining in Zambia’, advised that the Zambian government needed to drift from relying on international regulation and intervention. The report mainly focuses on Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) under the ownership of Vedanta.

“The correct modern model of regulation is based on trust in the responsible company. If regulation is required, it can be provided by host countries,” the report stated. “This obviates the need for additional regulation by other actors; indeed the UK government’s Department for International Development (DFID)’s 2006 white paper, ‘Eliminating World Poverty: Making Governance Work for the Poor’, implicitly rejects a strong regulatory approach at home government or international level. The best solution for unscrupulous company behaviour is for the government of the country where such activity has taken place to have effective domestic legislation and regulation to stop it.”

The fund emphasised that the Zambian government had an important role to play in safeguarding human rights through the effective use of public funds generated from mining companies by ensuring effective corporate legislation.

KCM has in the past been a culprit of water and air pollution on the Copperbelt.
However, the report stated that government does not always have the ability to ensure effective regulation, as it faces challenges in designing and implementing national legislation.

And SCIAF stated that the government should ensure that any additional revenue transferred is positive.

“The onus is not only on mining companies to renegotiate the financial clauses in their contracts and provide details of payments made to government, but on the Zambian government to ensure that any additional revenue transferred is indeed ‘positive’,” the fund stated.

“The government has a clear responsibility to ensure that any increased revenues generated by the renegotiation process are used to the benefit of the Zambian people and to ensure that it has a sufficiently robust financial management system with adequate checks and balances.”

SCIAF stressed that only if the renegotiations were handled in this manner would the country realise any tangible benefits to the population.

Labels: COPPER, DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENTS, MINING CONTRACTS

posted by MrK @ 8:55 AM