Tackling IFFs, revenue mismanagement and corruption top of UN chief’s list for transforming extractive industries
Addressing illicit financial flows (IFFs), revenue mismanagement and corruption is one of four imperatives highlighted by UN secretary-general António Guterres that must be enacted to ensure that the benefits of mineral resources reach all people in society, not just elites, while safeguarding the natural environment….
UN agencies finalise framework to measure illicit financial flows
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) have finalised a conceptual framework for the statistical measurement of illicit financial flows (IFFs). Pilot projects are either underway or due to commence soon using the new framework…
UNCTAD and ZRA mineral tracking tool now available for other countries
A mineral tracking system employing a data evaluation tool designed by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the Zambian Revenue Authority (ZRA) helped Zambia recover an additional US$1 million in export dues from mining companies in one year. The system, which…
UNCTAD publishes extensive report on IFFs out of Africa
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has published an extensive study into illicit financial flows (IFFs) out of Africa that it estimates to amount to around US$89 billion annually. The report argues that IFFs are a shared responsibility between developed and developing…
Study backs South African calls for UNCTAD to withdraw mis-invoicing report
The South African Chamber of Mines has again called for the withdrawal of a United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) report that calculated under-invoicing by the country’s miners between 2000-2014 at US$102.8 billion. UNCTAD already responded to earlier criticism of its paper, Trade…
UNCTAD defends study on trade misinvoicing
The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has responded to criticism of its paper, Trade Misinvoicing in Primary Commodities in Developing Countries, a study it published earlier this year (Trade Based Financial Crime, 25 July 2016). Experts challenged the paper’s assertions that between 2000…
UNCTAD report on under-invoicing under challenge
Experts are challenging the findings of a recently published report that said that between 2000 and 2014, some 67 per cent of the value of South Africa’s gold exports was lost through under-invoicing. Now it emerges that the apparent data discrepancies on which that conclusion…
UNCTAD publishes first major analysis of commodity misinvoicing in developing countries
Trade mis-invoicing is costing some developing countries as much as two-thirds of the value of certain commodity exports according to data from the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The data provides empirical evidence on the magnitude of trade mis-invoicing in primary exports from…
