Index for June 2008

Volume 7, Issue 6

• The OECD Common Approaches are dead!

  The approval of the egregiously flawed Sakhalin and Ilisu projects by OECD export credit agencies appear to be the final nails in the coffin of any credible effort to enforce the OECD's Common Approaches on the Environment and Offical Export Credits.

• Environmental Groups Condemn Japanese and French Banks for Financing Sakhalin II Oil and Gas Project in Russia

  (Friends of the Earth Japan, Tokyo, 16 June 2008) Environmental organizations today condemned the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and four private banks' June 16 decision to provide approximately 5.3 billion dollars in financing for the problematic Sakhalin II oil and gas project in the Russian Far East. JBIC (the Japan government's official export credit agency), Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ (Japan), Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd (Japan), Sumitomo Mitsui Bank Corp (Japan) and BNP Paribas (France) have severely violated their environmental policies by financing Sakhalin II, according to the groups.
    A. Photo report from Sakhalin fact finding mission
  From May 28 to June 2, 2008, representatives of Sakhalin Environment Watch, Friends of the Earth Japan and Pacific Environment conducted a fact-finding mission along the pipeline right of way for the Sakhalin-II oil and gas project. During the trip, these groups documented serious violations of public and private bank policies, and internationally accepted practice and Russian law. This photo report provides graphic evidence of these violations.

• OPIC agrees to review Bolivian community's mining project complaint

  On May 30, 2008, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), agreed to investigate a compliance review request and a problem solving request presented by the Ayllu Machaca People over the San Bartolome Mining project in Potosí, Bolivia.

• ECAs approve funding for controversial Camisea LNG project

  The International Finance Corporation (IFC) US Ex-Im, Kexim and SACE, as well as a commercial bank consortium of Société Générale, BBVA, Calyon, Sumitomo, ING, Mizuho, and Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi, are providing loans of some $2.25 billion for the controversial Camisea linked LNG project in Peru.

• Ongoing ECA fraud investigations raise questions of OECD ECA compliance with anti-corruption measures

  (ECA Watch, 30 June 2008) Recent fraud investigations and convictions in ECA cases raise questions about the committment of OECD export credit agencies to due diligence in their monitoring of compliance with their own anti-bribery standards.

• House of Lords to hear SFO appeal of ruling re BAE / Saudi / ECGD scandal

  (The Corner House, Dorset, 11 June 2008) The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has appealed against the High Court's judgment that it acted unlawfully in terminating a corruption investigation into arms deals between BAE Systems and Saudi Arabia. The appeal will take place at the House of Lords on Monday 7th and Tuesday 8th July.