IV 
109TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. RES. 995 
Promoting transparency of natural resource revenues in resource-rich devel-
oping countries to help combat corruption, encouraging democracy and 
accountable government in such countries, and ensuring energy security 
through a more stable operating environment in such countries. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
SEPTEMBER 12, 2006 
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey (for himself and Ms. WATSON) submitted the fol-
lowing resolution; which was referred to the Committee on International 
Relations, and in addition to the Committees on Financial Services and 
Ways and Means, for a period to be subsequently determined by the 
Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within 
the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
RESOLUTION 
Promoting transparency of natural resource revenues in re-
source-rich developing countries to help combat corrup-
tion, encouraging democracy and accountable government 
in such countries, and ensuring energy security through 
a more stable operating environment in such countries. 
Whereas, according to Freedom House rankings of freedom 
in the world, among the top ten petroleum exporting na-
tions of the world, only Mexico and Norway can be con-
sidered free, democratic nations, while the others—Ku-
wait, Nigeria, Venezuela, Algeria, Iran, Russia, Saudi 
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•HRES 995 IH 
Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates—exhibit limited 
elements of democracy; 
Whereas mismanagement and misappropriation of billions of 
dollars worth of revenues from the extraction of natural 
resources have occurred in some resource-rich African 
countries and such funds have ended up in the hands of 
autocratic rulers who are less than accountable to their 
citizens, ultimately contributing to the problems of polit-
ical instability and weak and failing states; 
Whereas in many resource-rich African countries multi-
national extractive companies are not required to publish 
information about payments made to host governments, 
and governments do not make information available to 
their citizens about the revenues they have received from 
such companies; 
Whereas such opacity has resulted in billions of dollars worth 
of financial impropriety, facilitating embezzlement, cor-
ruption, and revenue misappropriation; 
Whereas African oil producers currently provide as much as 
a quarter of America’s oil supplies, and stable, trans-
parent, and accountable African producers will be the key 
guarantors of future energy supplies to the United 
States; 
Whereas many companies working in the extractive industries 
have seen their legitimate revenues misappropriated and 
squandered in countries in which revenue flows are not 
transparent, leaving such companies vulnerable to accusa-
tions of complicity with corruption and undermining the 
social legitimacy and political stability that protect the 
operations of such companies; 
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Whereas in Equatorial Guinea, the country’s oil boom has led 
to a significant increase in its gross domestic product 
(GDP), while its living standards remain among the 
worst in Africa and much of the country’s oil revenues 
remain unaccounted for due to a lack of transparency 
that places oil companies at risk of being seen as 
complicit with this corruption; 
Whereas one in four children in Angola have died before the 
age of five in a country in which one in four dollars of 
oil revenues have gone unaccounted for throughout much 
of the last decade; 
Whereas despite current high oil prices, Gabon is experi-
encing serious economic hardships due to ill-advised bor-
rowing for construction during a previous low point in oil 
prices, leaving half the income of the Gabonese Govern-
ment committed to interest payments at a time of rising 
unemployment; 
Whereas, according to the nongovernmental organization 
Publish What You Pay, approximately $300 million in oil 
revenues of Congo (Brazzaville) identified by independent 
auditors in 2005 did not show up in the budgets of 
Congo (Brazzaville); 
Whereas the mismanagement of natural resource revenues in 
resource-rich developing countries often results in the 
taxpayers of the United States and other countries pro-
viding more aid to such resource-rich developing coun-
tries to compensate for the failure of such countries to 
provide basic services; 
Whereas resource revenue transparency, where companies 
publicly disclose all payments made to governments for 
natural resource extraction and governments publish re-
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•HRES 995 IH 
ceipts of such payments, is a crucial first step to com-
bating corruption and ensuring that revenues from nat-
ural resource extraction benefit the citizens of such coun-
tries; 
Whereas disclosure of foreign investment contracts such as 
production sharing agreements (PSAs), host government 
agreements (HGAs), and other similar agreements con-
tain the formulas necessary to calculate the amount and 
distribution of revenues generated from extractive 
projects and are policy-setting documents that often es-
tablish social and environmental conditions under which 
such projects operate; 
Whereas the disclosure of such contracts is also necessary to 
root out corruption and to determine the social and envi-
ronmental impacts of a project and whether it will con-
tribute to development and poverty reduction; 
Whereas the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative 
(EITI), an international agreement supported by the 
Group of Eight (G–8) nations, is working toward ensur-
ing that the revenues from natural resource extraction 
are more transparent and more accountably managed; 
Whereas the EITI has the support and participation of a 
wide group of stakeholders, including the World Bank, 
the International Monetary Fund, approximately 20 de-
veloping countries (including four African countries which 
are implementing the EITI), civil society, major inter-
national companies, and international investors; 
Whereas the major oil, gas, and mining companies and lead-
ing investors representing $8 trillion in assets have recog-
nized the important role that resource revenue trans-
parency plays in creating a stable operating environment 
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and have been actively involved and publicly stated their 
support for resource revenue transparency and the EITI; 
Whereas the G–8 nations, meeting in Gleneagles, Scotland, 
from July 6–8, 2005, stated: ‘‘We call on African re-
source-rich countries to implement EITI or similar prin-
ciples of transparency and on the World Bank, IMF and 
regional development banks to support them. We support 
the development of appropriate criteria for validating 
EITI implementation.’’; 
Whereas the International Monetary Fund’s Guide on Re-
source Revenue Transparency states that ‘‘given these 
potentially substantial costs of nontransparent practices, 
it is estimated that institutional strengthening to improve 
transparency in vulnerable resource-rich countries should 
provide an ample pay-off for relatively modest invest-
ment’’; 
Whereas the United States Department of the Treasury 
statement regarding the World Bank’s Extractive Indus-
tries Review states: ‘‘We believe financial assistance 
should be predicated upon the government of a country 
where a project is located having in place, or committing 
to establish, a functioning system for accounting for reve-
nues and expenditures.’’; 
Whereas United States trade preference programs, such as 
the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), in-
clude eligibility criteria that relate to combating corrup-
tion; and 
Whereas transparency will contribute to the best interests of 
everyone concerned: citizens, companies, investors, gov-
ernments, and the greater international community: Now, 
therefore, be it 
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