March 07, 2011

You need some warning labels on the transparency pills offered

Sir it is not “when citizens do not know how much the governments are paid” in resource revenues that lies behind the real resource curse… it is much more when governments get paid too much, like more than 5% of GDP, 15% of its exports, or 25% of all tax revenues received from the citizens, “Stop digging deep for the kleptocrats” March 7.

In those cases of evident lack of balance of the societal powers, those transparency pills that the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative offers, will in the best of cases act as placebos, and it the worst, be feeding on those illusions of a better tomorrow that help maintain petrocrats and oiligarchs in power.