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DRC: Mining multi-nationals get deal of the century

Tags: china, katanga, africa, extractive, industry, copper, international, development, corruption on 2008-08-01 -All Annotations (0) -About

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Unlike western governments, incapable of releasing the credits necessary for the reconstruction of a country four times the size of France, China has been quick to get down to work: several projects have already begun in Katanga, Kivu and Kinshasa, where 250km of roads and 1,000 units of social housing are to be built. The people's hopes are undermined by fears that the arrival of Chinese workers and engineers heralds a new wave of colonisation. The unconcealed displeasure of the West, Belgium especially, could endanger the stability of the government. But the Congolese government is determined to pursue its relationship with China.
The terms granted to private companies associated with Gécamines took the commissioners aback. The investment of external partners was systematically overvalued and that of the Congolese (the value of mineral deposits and existing Gécamines infrastructure) underestimated. Fiscal and para-fiscal concessions (such as 30-year tax exemptions) deprived the state of essential revenues. Mining rights were acquired for purely speculative ends (the partners sold the shares on the stock exchange before even starting work on the ground), while social and environmental clauses were ignored, local skills undervalued, local workers underpaid and concession boundaries extended without authorisation.
And there is a third, social threat. The small-scale exploitation of mineral deposits is coming to an end as the big multinationals move in, driving out independent miners.

Until a few months ago the Étoile mine at Ruashi, a few kilometres outside Lubumbashi, was just an open pit where men worked unprotected. Children scurried through unsupported tunnels, pulling out rocks striated with green copper or yellow cobalt and cramming them into jute sacks. Cave-ins and fatalities were so frequent that the miners had their own mutual insurance scheme to cover hospital or funeral expenses.
Lubumbashi is the capital of Katanga, the southernmost state of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Day and night, huge trucks roar through its streets, making for the nearby Zambian border with cargoes of copper and cobalt on their way, via the Tanzanian port of Dar es Salaam, to Asia. Every month new stores open: fast food joints with American names, and shops where the locals stare in wonder at Chinese consumer goods, finally within their reach.
Corruption

DRC: Mining multi-nationals get deal of the century

2008-07-18

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/corruption/49569

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There is potentially enormous mineral wealth in the DRC province of Katanga. In exchange, investors from all over the world, and especially China, are prepared to offer money and infrastructure to revive the DRC after 15 terrible years of war and invasion. The potential for ecological disaster, social exploitation and corruption is almost limitless.

Le Monde diplomatique

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July 2008 MINING MULTINATIONALS GET DEALS OF THE CENTURY

Copper colony in Congo

There is potentially enormous mineral wealth in the DRC province of Katanga. In exchange, investors from all over the world, and especially China, are prepared to offer money and infrastructure to revive the DRC after 15 terrible years of war and invasion.

The potential for ecological disaster, social exploitation and corruption is almost limitless.

by Colette Braeckman

Lubumbashi is the capital of Katanga, the southernmost state of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Day and night, huge trucks roar through its streets, making for the nearby Zambian border with cargoes of copper and cobalt on their way, via the Tanzanian port of Dar es Salaam, to Asia. Every month new stores open: fast food joints with American names, and shops where the locals stare in wonder at Chinese consumer goods, finally within their reach.

Paul Wolfowitz - Good Governance and Development—A Time For Action, Jakarta, Indonesia,

Tags: wolfowitz, indonesia, corruption, world, bank, development, project on 2008-07-17 -All Annotations (0) -About

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Africa Unchained: Saying No to the Big men

Tags: richard, joseph, democratization, africa, big, men, corruption, international, development on 2008-07-06 -All Annotations (0) -About

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Africa Unchained: Meles & Mugabe,What's the difference?

Tags: ethiopia, mugabe, meles, zimbabwe, africa, corruption, development, unchained, okafor on 2008-07-06 -All Annotations (0) -About

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Chad's Oil Riches, Meant for Poor, Are Diverted - New York Times

A $4.2 billion oil pipeline has generated $399 million for Chad since mid-2004, but the spending of the money has been seriously marred by mismanagement, graft and, most recently, the government's decision that a hefty share can be used to fight a rebellion.

Tags: bank, cameroon, chad, corporations, development, industry, world, petroleum, multinational, international, corruption, deby on 2008-06-07 -All Annotations (0) -About

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Critics say the bank moved too hastily to move the project to completion before this unstable, corrupt and autocratically-governed country was ready for it. Though aware of the risks, bank managers said they felt that other investors with no stake in poverty reduction would eventually build the pipeline anyway.
But Ms. Mekombe of the oversight committee said that even when the monitors documented problems, their recommendations were often ignored, while officials and companies cited as corrupt were never investigated by the government. "All the work we have done, all the sacrifices we have made, sometimes I think it is all for nothing," she said.
"This project could not survive contact with the reality of Chad," said Gilbert Maoundonodji, who runs a Chadian nonprofit group that investigates petroleum spending in the country. "It is the most corrupt country in the world."
The oversight group officially charged with monitoring the oil spending laid out a damning catalog of malfeasance and bungling last May, from overspending on office equipment to bungling or abandoning entire public works projects.
Chad has demanded that the consortium led by Exxon Mobil that built the pipeline begin depositing the oil royalties directly in the country's central bank rather than an account designated in its agreement with the World Bank. Chadian officials said they were prepared to "close the faucets" of the oil pipeline if no settlement was reached.
Exxon, responding to written questions, said only that it hoped that the bank and Chad could address Chad's financial distress while preserving the poverty-reduction framework.
"We have lived without oil in the past, and we are prepared to do it again to preserve our dignity. And there are other partners we can pursue."
I think to stand back and say the whole thing is a dirty business and we in the World Bank don't want to have anything to do with it is very shortsighted."
In recent weeks, Chad seriously weakened a law that dedicated most of its oil revenue to reducing poverty and reneged on its deal with the World Bank. In response, the bank suspended all its loans to the country.
A $4.2 billion oil pipeline has generated $399 million for Chad since mid-2004, but the spending of the money has been seriously marred by mismanagement, graft and, most recently, the government's decision that a hefty share can be used to fight a rebellion.

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BBC NEWS | Africa | Chad's oil watchdog 'powerless'

A committee set up to oversee oil revenues in Chad has protested about lack of resources from the government and oil company involved.
The central African state became an oil producer last year.

The committee was set up under a World Bank plan to tr

Tags: exxon, mobil, mekombe, chad, corruption, cameroon, oil, petroleum, pipeline on 2008-06-07 -All Annotations (0) -About

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John Pilger: Our model dictator | Comment is free | The Guardian

Tags: indonesia, suharto, corruption, worldbank, pilger on 2008-05-22 -All Annotations (0) -About

in list: Suharto, World Bank and Intl Development

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at-Largely: Media Buries U.S. Complicity in Suharto's Bloody Rule

Tags: indonesia, suharto, corruption, worldbank on 2008-05-22 -All Annotations (0) -About

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Indonesian dictator Suharto finds forgiveness on his deathbed | World news | The Observer

It's hard to believe that the subject of all this attention was named and shamed by the World Bank and the UN last year, as the world's most corrupt leader. Transparency International estimates Suharto and his family stole $15-35bn of state assets.

He was also the head of the army when it oversaw the destruction of the Communist party, in which more than half a million lives were believed lost. And during his reign as president, secessionists in East Timor, Irian Jaya and Aceh were brutally repressed.

'Suharto had some mistakes in the past, but that should not prevent us from giving our gratitude,' President Yudhoyono said yesterday. 'President Suharto is a leader of this country and has made some achievements, especially in economic development.'

Tags: suharto, indonesia, corruption on 2008-05-22 -All Annotations (0) -About

in list: Suharto, World Bank and Intl Development

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My thoughts are about Mugabe tonight

Tags: amaah, zimbabwe, africa, corruption, international, development, mugabe, politics, government, governance, elections, blog on 2008-04-02 -All Annotations (0) -About

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Oil Industry at the Heart of the Zaghawa Power Struggle in Chad

"Far from becoming the hoped for example of a way out of the factionalism and corruption that has tended to accompany...oil reserves in Africa, Chad has developed a bloody intra-tribal struggle for control of oil revenues with little hope...in sight."

Tags: chad, petroleum, industry, oil, rebellion, zaghawa, africa, corruption on 2008-03-30 -All Annotations (0) -About

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Chad decrees avoid World Bank controls-analysts | Reuters - 20080228

"Seventy percent of Chad's oil revenues are supposed to go to priority sectors...but now all this money is going...to...Deby," an independent analyst of Chad's oil sector...said. "...The World Bank can do nothing, their role has become almost nil..."

Tags: chad, cameroon, petroleum, oil, development, international, world, bank, deby, corruption, war on 2008-03-30 -All Annotations (0) -About

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Janet Roitman

Tags: academic, scholar, chad, central, africa, international, development, anthropology, corruption, informal, economics, markets, state, cameroon, niger, nigeria, for:svarteper on 2008-03-21 -All Annotations (0) -About

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allAfrica.com: Kenya: Matano - the Life And Times of Minister Who Refused to 'Eat' (Page 1 of 2)

"Surely, I cannot explain to you why I did not join in the grabbing," Mr Matano told me. "I did not think about it, although I could see MPs shooting into millionaires a year after their election. It must be something to do with my upbringing..."

Tags: kenya, politics, corruption, government on 2008-03-16 -All Annotations (0) -About

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Nigeria: N21 Billion Ghost Contracts Found

different heads of power stations in the Power Holding Company of Nigeria [PHCN] one by one denied knowledge of contracts worth N20.994bn, said to have been awarded from 1999 to 2007 for various projects under their sections.

Tags: gildassapiens, obasanjo, nigeria, corruption, phcn, power, public, corporations, utilities on 2008-03-13 -All Annotations (0) -About

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For those who want to know: Reliable information on health, energy, media, war, elections, 9/11, more

Tags: academic, activism, conspiracy, corruption, us, intervention on 2008-03-08 and saved by11 people -All Annotations (0) -About

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#07-402: 06-04-07 Congressman William Jefferson Indicted On Bribery, Racketeering, Money Laundering, Obstruction of Justice, and Related Charges

The things of value allegedly sought and/or received by Jefferson on behalf of his business interests and relatives included hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of bribes in the form of payments from monthly fees or retainers, consulting fees, percenta

Tags: corruption, usa, nigeria, william, jefferson on 2008-02-16 -All Annotations (0) -About

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DRC: Mining multi-nationals get deal of the century

DRC: Mining multi-nationals get deal of the century

2008-07-18

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/corruption/49569

Printer friendly version

Paul Wolfowitz - Good Governance and Development—A Time For Action, Jakarta, Indonesia,

Africa Unchained: Saying No to the Big men

Africa Unchained: Meles & Mugabe,What's the difference?

Chad's Oil Riches, Meant for Poor, Are Diverted - New York Times

BBC NEWS | Africa | Chad's oil watchdog 'powerless'

John Pilger: Our model dictator | Comment is free | The Guardian

at-Largely: Media Buries U.S. Complicity in Suharto's Bloody Rule

Indonesian dictator Suharto finds forgiveness on his deathbed | World news | The Observer

Global Development: Views from the Center: Giving Suharto His Due

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Ethiopia: Repression Sets Stage for Non-Competitive Elections

My thoughts are about Mugabe tonight

Oil Industry at the Heart of the Zaghawa Power Struggle in Chad

Chad decrees avoid World Bank controls-analysts | Reuters - 20080228

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For those who want to know: Reliable information on health, energy, media, war, elections, 9/11, more

#07-402: 06-04-07 Congressman William Jefferson Indicted On Bribery, Racketeering, Money Laundering, Obstruction of Justice, and Related Charges

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