Multinationals ‘Steal’ $50bn Per Year From Africa
- London New African Magazine 2012.
- 2p
The article looks at the role played by multinational companies in siphoning large sums of money out of Africa through IFFs. It comes as no surprise that large sums of money illicitly leave the African continent each year, but the scale of this movement, as revealed in a new report by the UN Economic Commission for Africa, is shocking. The report, says that illicit transfer of funds from the developing world to the developed countries could amount to a staggering $1.5 trillion every year. Global multinationals use a variety of means to siphon off vast amounts that the developing world, including Africa, desperately needs. In addition to mispricing, corporations are involved in the equally damaging practice of tax avoidance and evasion and laundered commercial transactions. These activities, shift money beyond the reach of domestic authorities and, in effect, denies them the ability to put such resources in their own development. Throw into this mix illicit and illegal transfers involving theft, bribery and other forms of corruption by government officials, drug trading, racketeering, counterfeiting, contraband and terrorist financing and you have a witch’s brew of malfeasance.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT TRADE MISPRICING BALANCE OF PAYMENTS BANKING SECRECY CAPITAL FLIGHT CAPITAL OUTFLOW CROSS-BORDER ENVIRONMENT FALSE BILLING GOOD GOVERNANCE ILLICIT WEALTH MISPRICING MONEY LAUNDERING NATURAL RESOURCES PRIVATE CAPITAL SMUGGLING TAX EVASION TAX HAVENS TAXES TRANSPARENCY UNDERPRICING
