The Congolese city of Kisangani is a lawless and desperate place. Civil and international conflict has left it with no effective government. Scoundrels now prowl along the streets, seeking illicit diamonds pilfered from nearby mines.

At the Palm Beach Hotel, sweaty white businessmen scrounge for the big prize Congo has on offer: mineral concessions from local warlords and corrupt officials. According to a United Nations report quietly passed on to The Security Council last month, companies based in Canada have joined the dubious characters exploiting the political and economic chaos in The Democratic Republic of Congo — a blow to the reputation of a country often considered an international boy scout. he UN document is entitled “The Final Report of the Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic Republic of Congo.” It is a damning and detailed indictment of international economic misbehavior. Dozens of individuals and companies are recommended for sanctions including travel bans and financial restrictions. While Canadian companies escape being singled out for punishment, five are included on a secondary list some journalists have called “The List of Shame.” These are companies who are accused of violating international principles on business practices in war zones. The panel lists these companies under the heading, “Business Enterprises Considered by the Panel to be in Violation of OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.” The Canadian companies listed are: · The Harambee Mining Corporation · International Panorama Resources Corporation · Melkior Resources Incorporated · Tenke Mining Corporation · First Quantum Minerals The 60-page report leaves out much of the evidence on which the panel based their conclusions. One example listed, however, has representatives of Calgary-based First Quantum Minerals allegedly paying $100 million to various officials in the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo in order to secure mining rights in the country. The Congolese government has since announced the sacking of the named officials. The findings of the UN report don’t surprise Theresa Nannozi, Business Editor of the Kampala-based daily newspaper, The Monitor. Wherever there is no effectual government, like in Congo, Nannozi says multinational companies from Africa and abroad will adapt their business practices accordingly. “Countries like Congo are in a state of lawlessness. There is a negligence of the law by national the authorities that are often willing to connive with big companies looking for contracts and deals,” she says. “The companies do it because it’s profitable for them. They can get away with it.” But are they really “getting away with it”? Recently, several Canadian companies have been caught with their proverbial hands in the cookie jar. Last month, a Canadian company became the first corporation in history to be convicted of corruption by an African court. The High Court of Lesotho, a tiny nation in southern Africa, convicted Calgary-based engineering firm Acres International of paying $680,000 in bribes to a senior official of the Lesotho government. In return, the official was to guarantee Acres government contracts in a massive national hydroelectric scheme. The judge ordered Acres to pay more than $2 million US in fines, reportedly saying: “The court wants to send a clear message that companies wanting contracts should not even think of taking a risk in trying to bribe officials.” Lawyers for Acres adamantly deny the charges and say they will appeal the conviction. But all in all, they got off rather easily: The hapless Lesotho official caught taking the money has been sentenced to 18 years in prison. Several other multinational companies are also awaiting trial for involvement in the same scheme. Despite the bad press Canadian companies are getting lately in Africa, The Monitor’s Theresa Nannozi is reluctant to be too harsh in her own judgment. In her mind, some of these companies have no choice but to pay bribes. “What law-abiding company could possibly operate in Congo?” she says. “The OECD [the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development] is trying to set standards for companies to follow in the developing world, but in many places the structures just don’t exist to do business lawfully. There are no working courts, no ministries to negotiate with, and so on.” Others in Africa aren’t as willing to let the big multinational companies off the moral hook. In a surprising speech to Ugandan business leaders, Kenyan politician Ralia Odinga, said poorly paid civil servants simply couldn’t resist the offers of substantial bribes. Odinga, the man touted to be Kenya’s next prime minister, blames the big corporations for damaging Africa’s political development by creating a marketplace for corruption. The history of Africa’s relations with the corporate world would probably hold up Odinga’s accusations. And the damage goes much deeper than politics. In Nigeria, regional and tribal leaders have long decried the environmental damages created by foreign multinational oil companies exploiting the country’s energy reserves. The playwright Ken Saro-Wiwa composed a poem condemning the oil company Shell for contaminating the Ogoni region of Nigeria. He wrote: The flames of Shell are flames of Hell, We bask below their light. Nought for us to serve the blight, Of cursed neglect and cursed Shell. Do Canadian companies risk being catalogued together with controversial companies like Shell? Probably not just yet. For all the embarrassment they might have caused (lucky for the Canadian companies named by the UN, and in the Lesotho case, journalists seemed to have passed over the story) the bribes Canadian companies are accused of paying are fairly small potatoes. In the last five years for instance, Angolan officials are accused of embezzling 10 per cent of the country’s GDP, or about $5 billion.

Murray Oliver, CTV News Africa Bureau, December 12, 2002