EU gives $.5m to energy transparency campaign

THE European Union (EU) has donated $500,000 to a campaign to promote transparency of ownership in TT’s energy sector, in league with the TT Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (TTEITI) and the TT Transparency Institute (TTTI).

The Beneficial Ownership Disclosure (BOD) campaign runs from February to December. It is a public awareness and sensitisation campaign to meet TT’s international obligations on the disclosure of secret company ownership and the disclosure by public officials of their holdings in the oil, gas and mining sectors.

“The campaign also aims to deter tax evasion, white-collar crime and terrorist financing,” said an EU statement. It is the first campaign of its kind in TT and will use a mixture of activities to sensitise sectors of the population – government leaders, legislators, law enforcement, the business sectors, civil society and the general public – about the need for laws on disclosure and how these help fight corruption in the extractive sectors, namely oil, gas and mining.

EU Ambassador to TT Aad Biesebroek warned that anonymity of ownership could encourage corruption.

“The citizens – the true owners of a country’s natural resources – may be cheated out of revenues derived from these industries to which they are entitled and this in turn hampers economic development.

“It is therefore up to the public (government, law enforcement and CSOs) to ensure that all corporations live up to their financial obligations to the State by monitoring the activities of companies and/or holding them to account when violations occur.”