A group of US senators have praised public disclosures made by Irish company Tullow Oil on payments made to foreign governments in their call for transparency regulations to be enforced in the US.
Thirteen senators wrote to the US Securities and Exchange Commission asking that one of the Dodd-Frank financial reforms passed in 2010 after the financial crisis be put into effect, forcing US-listed oil, gas and mining companies to disclose payments to governments for natural resource activities.
The letter, sent yesterday to SEC chair Mary Jo White, noted how Tullow and other multinationals, had “publicly emphasised the benefits their companies receive from increased transparency.” The senators expressed disappointment that the section of Dodd-Frank had failed to appear on the rulemaking agenda at the markets’ regulator.
Non-profit group Publish What You Pay, which lobbies for transparency in extractive industries, said Tullow Oil made history in March when it voluntarily disclosed $870 million in payments to governments.
