US embassy cable - 05KINSHASA880

C O N F I D E N T I A L KINSHASA 000880 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT. PASS TO USTR 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/22/2015 
TAGS: ECON, EMIN, EPET, EFIN, CG 
SUBJECT: DRC PLEDGES ADVANCES IN MINING TRANSPARENCY 
 
Classified By: W. Brafman for reasons 1.4 b/d. 
 
1. (C) Summary.  Vice - President Jean-Pierre Bemba has 
inaugurated the DRC's participation in an international 
effort to promote transparency in extractive industries. 
Bemba claims real commitment to promoting mining industry 
transparency, but his actions may be merely politically 
motivated.  Several countries and the World Bank support the 
DRC's participation in the initiative.  However, the Ministry 
of Mines questions Bemba's motivation for EITI participation. 
End Summary. 
 
2.  (U) Bemba launched the DRC's participation in the 
Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) at a 
World Bank-funded conference in Kinshasa on May 11 and 12. 
EITI, an initiative that UK PM Tony Blair announced in 
September 2002, aims to increase transparency in transactions 
between government and extractive companies to improve 
governance and reduce conflict, corruption and poverty. 
Corruption and other illegal activity, such as smuggling, 
have permeated the DRC's mining industry since independence. 
Bemba announced at the May conference that a temporary 
working group will form within fifteen days to select 
representatives of private and public enterprises, 
government, and civil society who will comprise a permanent 
working group.  The permanent working group will develop a 
plan to implement the EITI measures.  EITI measures include 
the industries' publishing their payments to government and 
government's publishing its actual receipts. Both the 
payments and revenues are then subject to an independent 
audit. 
 
3.  (C)  A DFID economist who is a liaison with EITI told 
Econoff on May 20 that Bemba's commitment to EITI and his 
motivation for launching it are uncertain. The DFID economist 
also said that U.S. support and involvement will be sought, 
although he did not yet know of specific requests.  He said 
that other diplomatic missions, including France, Belgium and 
Canada, have expressed support for DRC's participation.  He 
noted that the World Bank has expressed interest in further 
supporting the initiative, at least by supplying consultative 
experts, if the DRC demonstrates commitment to the process. 
 
4. (C) Minister of Mines Ingele Ifoto told Econoff on May 16 
that the GDRC is not ready to participate in this initiative 
and that it should originate as a grassroots, 
non-governmental initiative. Beyond that, Ifoto questioned 
Bemba's commitment to the initiative. 
 
5. (C) Comment:  Ifoto belongs to a different political 
faction than Bemba and is often at loggerheads with the 
Vice-President; thus, his comments are unsurprising. That 
said, Bemba is indeed likely to be more interested in trying 
to garner credibility and political support, particularly 
within the international community, than in promoting 
transparency. Nonetheless, Bemba's commitment to this 
initiative provides a useful lever to obtain greater 
transparency in the DRC's traditionally murky mining industry 
transactions.  End Comment. 
MEECE