International oil, gas, and mining companies pay billions of dollars a year to the governments of many less developed countries that are rich in natural resources, such as Angola and Nigeria.
Few of these countries' citizens benefit from this financial windfall, however, because of government
corruption + mismanagement.
The "
Publish What You Pay" campaign aims to help citizens hold their governments accountable for how these resource-related funds are managed and distributed.
George Soros and a coalition of more than
40 NGOs (including the
Open Society Institute and the campaign's co-sponsor,
Global Witness)
place the onus on wealthy countries' governments to require transnational extraction companies to publish net taxes, fees, royalties, and other payments made so civil society can more accurately assess the amount of money misappropriated and lobby for full transparency in local government spending.