21 04 14 Jeune Afrique – DRC’s future is in the hands of its Parliament

Used wisely, the Democratic
Republic of the Congo’s natural resources
could help lift millions out of poverty and build the foundations for a
functioning, peaceful society.

For many years, the enormous wealth of natural
resources in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has added fuel to the
fire of conflict, serving primarily to enrich elites and warring parties.
Meanwhile, many of the country’s citizens struggle to afford a meal a day.

The
dangers posed by a lack of transparency in DRC government affairs were thrown
into stark relief last year when the Africa Progress Panel estimated that the
DRC lost out on at least U.S $1.36 billion when mining concessions were sold
off in secret between 2010 and 2012. This is equivalent to almost double the
DRC’s annual spending on health and education.

Senior
figures in the DRC administration have promised greater transparency and better
governance in the oil and mining sectors. During its current session, the DRC
Parliament is set to consider crucial laws on how the DRC’s oil and mineral
riches will be managed.

Passing
laws that enforce transparency and ensure that the country will gain a fair
share of its mineral wealth will be a crucial test. It will show whether the
country’s elected leaders are genuine in their pledge to open a new and better
chapter in the DRC’s history.

In
the coming days and weeks, the Parliament will debate the country’s first ever
law to govern its expanding oil sector. This amount is set to rise sharply in
the next few years following a deal with Angola to drill their shared
offshore oil fields.

Unfortunately,
the oil sector law – as it is drafted – fails on every count.  There is
little in the bill that would prevent further corruption and severe
environmental damage. The bill fails to require the publication of oil
contracts, disclosure of the ultimate owners of oil licences or an open
tendering process for oil licences.

The
bill also opens the way to drilling inside national parks, including Virunga in
North-east DRC, where exploration is already
under way. Virunga is Africa’s oldest national
park, and it is one of the last mountain gorilla habitats in the world.

To
date, there has been no public consultation on the bill. The Africa Progress
Panel, alongside campaign groups like Global Witness, has called for the vote
in DRC’s Parliament to be postponed and for robust anti-corruption and
environmental safeguards to be built into the law.

Later
this year, DRC’s Parliament will also be voting on a new mining law. This is no
less important, since DRC has one of the world’s richest deposits of copper, is
the largest global exporter of cobalt, and has unexplored quantities of
extremely valuable “rare-earth” minerals, used in phones and computer products.

The
mining law should include similar safeguards against corruption and
environmental damage as the oil law, as well as a requirement for companies to
carry out checks on their supply chains to ensure their activities are not
funding warring parties in the country.

Strong
transparency clauses in these two laws could empower citizens to hold the
government to account and ensure the laws are enforced. Indeed the authorities
should seriously consider publishing the country’s balance sheet on, say, a
monthly basis as it would reflect financial receipts from, among others, the
sale of minerals and oil.

Despite
its mineral wealth, the DRC comes last in the UN’s Human Development Index and
more than 70 percent of DRC’s people live on less than a dollar a day.

The
revenues generated by mining and oil production belong to the people. Used
right, they could help lift millions out of poverty and build the foundations
for a functioning, peaceful society. Sifting the revenue away through bribes,
undervaluation and tax avoidance is simply plunder. The people of the DRC has
seen too much of it over the past century and a half. It is time they get their
fair share of their countries immense wealth