Oil riches and dirty money from poor Africa-Sunday Nation Magazine-1/12/2002-Nairobi-Kenya
Someone leaked a report from the International Monetary Fund claiming that over the past five years Angolan government officials pocketed more than $4 billion from oil companies that paid "signature bonuses".
Government corruption continues to plague African countries. Still, what must be equally disturbing to any African reading this news is that Western oil companies pay these vast sums of money year after year knowing that the average Angolan citizen lives in dire poverty. Why don�t the executives in the oil companies do something about the corruption? It would seem that they, more than anyone else, have the leverage to make a difference.
Besides, it seems equally obvious that, like accomplices in marketing stolen goods, the ones paying the money are just as corrupt as the ones pocketing the funds. They know that the money is being paid to foreign banks so that it can be secretly shuttled to the private accounts of corrupt officials.
But the oil companies do not look at their payments of "signature bonuses" as corrupt business practice.
According to the news reports on the IMF investigation, financial reports from the oil companies were transparent about the payments. The so-called "signature bonuses" may sound like a euphemism for corruption, but the oil executives certainly did not see it that way. Precisely because of their openness about the money paid to government officials, the question arose: "Where did all that money go?"
"Signature bonuses"
And when it was discovered that it did not go to the government, it became obvious to everyone that the officials had stolen the money. The firms seem to be shrugging their shoulders, saying, "Our job is to drill for oil". The people running the companies are obviously convinced that they are not breaking any law.
The latest report from Transparency International lists African countries with a high index of corruption. Angola is only one example.
A press release that accompanied the report stated: "Political elites and their cronies continue to take kickbacks at every opportunity. Hand in glove with corrupt business people, they are trapping whole nations in poverty and hampering sustainable development".
There appears to be a lot of corruption among business leaders dealing with government officials. But many business leaders see it differently. If they are not in any obvious way breaking a law when paying something they publicly account for as a "signature bonus" or "facilitation fee", why, they say, should they be labelled corrupt? This is the underlying moral problem. Given the enormous amount of money involved in these deals, we need to sensitise the consciences of public officials and business leaders around the world. The basic principles of distinguishing between good and evil are not limited to what the law allows or does not allow.
Oil executives or the leaders of any other business cannot shrug their shoulders and watch people suffer while exploiting a nation�s wealth and the hard work of its citizens. The poor of Africa have a right to a minimum standard of living as much as anyone living in the developed world.
Law and the enforcement of just laws are crucial to improving the lives of those trapped in poverty. But in the end, besides being responsible before the law, I have my own conscience and you have your own conscience before God. God demands that we feel the weight of the misery that others suffer. I can't absolve myself by saying, "well, according to the law, it was perfectly legal", even though it did enormous harm to millions of people. God does not judge by legalities but by justice and truth.
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