African Energy Chamber

OPINION: Glencore’s Leadership Must be Held Accountable for Company’s Corrupt Behavior (By NJ Ayuk)

EQS-Media / 20.09.2022 / 13:50 CET/CEST OPINION: Glencore’s Leadership Must be Held Accountable for Company’s Corrupt Behavior (By NJ Ayuk) JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, September 20, 2022 - By NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman, African Energy Chamber (www.EnergyChamber.org) After U.S. energy company Enron made global headlines in the early 2000s for accounting and corporate fraud, attention quickly shifted to the decision-makers behind the company’s actions. Ultimately, Enron executives Kenneth Lay, Jeffrey Skilling, and Andrew Fastow were convicted on federal felony charges.

That was the appropriate response. When corporations engage in illegal behavior, the people responsible should face repercussions — and they often do.

Why, then, have the executives at Switzerland-headquartered commodities and mining multinational Glencore Plc been spared the consequences of their responsibility for years-long corrupt behavior?

In May, two of the company’s subsidiaries pleaded guilty to several charges of market manipulation and bribery in multiple countries after extensive investigations by Brazil, the United Kingdom, and the United States. One month later, a Glencore subsidiary pleaded guilty to seven counts of bribery related to its oil operations in Cameroon, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, and South Sudan.

I realize that more than USD 1.5 billion in penalties have been imposed on Glencore by the U.S., the United Kingdom, and Brazil — and more could follow after Swiss and Dutch investigations are completed. But the repercussions shouldn’t be limited to fines. No company has ever pleaded guilty to this much corruption. We find it extremely troubling that the executives who approved and benefited from the corruption have, as of yet, gone unscathed.

The African Energy Chamber strongly believes that Glencore’s leaders must be held accountable for their actions. Anything less sends the message that “bribery is a necessary evil” in regions of the world like Africa. That is not true. Now is the time to make that reality abundantly clear to corporate leaders who do business here.