Newmont gets two awards for blatant violations of corporate ethics and sustainable corporate management
Gilbert Boyefio
06/02/2009
The Public Eye Awards in Davos on January 28, within view of the World Economic Forum, under the auspices of the Bern Declaration and Greenpeace Switzerland denounced Bernische Kraftwerke and Newmont Mining for some particularly blatant violations of corporate ethics and sustainable corporate management.
The Public Eye Awards 2009 go to the US gold mining corporation Newmont Mining and the Swiss utility Bernische Kraftwerke, which was also selected as the winner of the people' shaming award.
At the tenth Public Eye Awards, the Bern Declaration and its new Davos-partner Greenpeace Switzerland presented awards to two companies that exemplify all those WEF-members and large corporate enterprises, whose social and environmental offenses are but the flipside of a globalization for profit only.
A real economic order requires strong political rules, the German CDU-politician Heiner Geissler said in his opening speech. And the social-democratic Swiss MP Susanne Leutenegger Oberholzer criticized the WEF as an important fly-by-night lobby operation for the bankrupt neo-liberal business model.
Newmont Mining wins two awards at once: by presenting Newmont with the Global Award and the People"s Award respectively, the expert jury and the internet community appeared in complete agreement on the company’s wrongdoing. The world’s largest gold producer is being criticized for its scandalous gold mining project in Eastern Ghana.
In his presentation speech Daniel Owusu-Koranteng, president of the WACAM organization of people affected by the project, spoke of the cynical destruction of unique habitats of brutal forced relocations and poisoned earth and rivers.
Winner in the category Swiss Award is the Bernese utility company BKW. The Bernische Kraftwerke is pushing for the construction of a 1.6 billion coal-fired power plant near Dörpen in Lower Saxony, Germany. Inge Stemmer of the local citizen’s initiative Clean Energy opposes the efforts of BKW, which to her is just another way to speed up climate change.
In Davos she pointed out the huge contradiction between BKW’s green Swiss advertising and black Döringer reality and urged BKW Chief Executive Officer, Kurt Rohrbach to abandon this gigantic CO2-export project to a neighboring country.
For the first time in Public Eye history - the event was presented this year by current Bond-villain Anatole Taubman – there was also an award for the most courageous employee of the year. This Positive Award is shared by two Colombian union leaders, Jairo Quiroz Delgado and Freddy Lozano.
Their union Sintracarbon has been fighting a tough and successful battle for the communities affected by the mining operations of the El Cerrejon coal mine
In Davos they expressed hope for a quick end to the ruthless exploitation of resources in developing countries by transnational corporations.
The Bern Declaration and Greenpeace Switzerland have created the Public Eye Awards as a rallying point for a public that views the WEF with critical eyes. The two non-governmental organizations are calling for mandatory international corporate accountability rules.
According to Mr Daniel Owusu-Koranteng, though there is a big international reportage of the shaming Public Eye award which had been going on for about ten years, Newmont is making frantic efforts to kill the story in the Ghanaian media and also to create the impression that the award was from anti- mining
He pointed out that the Public Eye award is organized by Greenpeace and supported by Berne Declaration which is one of the oldest and respected NGOS in Switzerland. He further explained that the shaming award had in the past been received by all shades of industries from clothing, manufacturing, banks and food processing.
To him, "The only advantage of globalization is the opportunity to hold bad transnational corporations responsible outside the places where they cause the harm”.Back in Ghana, Newmont has denied the awards and regarded it as something that was orchestrated to tarnish its image.
Speaking to The Statesman in an interview, Marfo Oduro-Kwarteng, Acting Regional Communication Manager for Newmont, said though the Akyem project had not started but had initiated some form of developmental project to help in the development of some nine communities in the area.
He further stressed that the environment surrounding the eastern concession hadn’t been touched.”We are waiting for an approval from the Environmental Protection Agency before operations start, so how then do they talk about us degrading the environment now when actual operation has not began.
06/02/2009
The Public Eye Awards in Davos on January 28, within view of the World Economic Forum, under the auspices of the Bern Declaration and Greenpeace Switzerland denounced Bernische Kraftwerke and Newmont Mining for some particularly blatant violations of corporate ethics and sustainable corporate management.
The Public Eye Awards 2009 go to the US gold mining corporation Newmont Mining and the Swiss utility Bernische Kraftwerke, which was also selected as the winner of the people' shaming award.
At the tenth Public Eye Awards, the Bern Declaration and its new Davos-partner Greenpeace Switzerland presented awards to two companies that exemplify all those WEF-members and large corporate enterprises, whose social and environmental offenses are but the flipside of a globalization for profit only.
A real economic order requires strong political rules, the German CDU-politician Heiner Geissler said in his opening speech. And the social-democratic Swiss MP Susanne Leutenegger Oberholzer criticized the WEF as an important fly-by-night lobby operation for the bankrupt neo-liberal business model.
Newmont Mining wins two awards at once: by presenting Newmont with the Global Award and the People"s Award respectively, the expert jury and the internet community appeared in complete agreement on the company’s wrongdoing. The world’s largest gold producer is being criticized for its scandalous gold mining project in Eastern Ghana.
In his presentation speech Daniel Owusu-Koranteng, president of the WACAM organization of people affected by the project, spoke of the cynical destruction of unique habitats of brutal forced relocations and poisoned earth and rivers.
Winner in the category Swiss Award is the Bernese utility company BKW. The Bernische Kraftwerke is pushing for the construction of a 1.6 billion coal-fired power plant near Dörpen in Lower Saxony, Germany. Inge Stemmer of the local citizen’s initiative Clean Energy opposes the efforts of BKW, which to her is just another way to speed up climate change.
In Davos she pointed out the huge contradiction between BKW’s green Swiss advertising and black Döringer reality and urged BKW Chief Executive Officer, Kurt Rohrbach to abandon this gigantic CO2-export project to a neighboring country.
For the first time in Public Eye history - the event was presented this year by current Bond-villain Anatole Taubman – there was also an award for the most courageous employee of the year. This Positive Award is shared by two Colombian union leaders, Jairo Quiroz Delgado and Freddy Lozano.
Their union Sintracarbon has been fighting a tough and successful battle for the communities affected by the mining operations of the El Cerrejon coal mine
In Davos they expressed hope for a quick end to the ruthless exploitation of resources in developing countries by transnational corporations.
The Bern Declaration and Greenpeace Switzerland have created the Public Eye Awards as a rallying point for a public that views the WEF with critical eyes. The two non-governmental organizations are calling for mandatory international corporate accountability rules.
According to Mr Daniel Owusu-Koranteng, though there is a big international reportage of the shaming Public Eye award which had been going on for about ten years, Newmont is making frantic efforts to kill the story in the Ghanaian media and also to create the impression that the award was from anti- mining
He pointed out that the Public Eye award is organized by Greenpeace and supported by Berne Declaration which is one of the oldest and respected NGOS in Switzerland. He further explained that the shaming award had in the past been received by all shades of industries from clothing, manufacturing, banks and food processing.
To him, "The only advantage of globalization is the opportunity to hold bad transnational corporations responsible outside the places where they cause the harm”.Back in Ghana, Newmont has denied the awards and regarded it as something that was orchestrated to tarnish its image.
Speaking to The Statesman in an interview, Marfo Oduro-Kwarteng, Acting Regional Communication Manager for Newmont, said though the Akyem project had not started but had initiated some form of developmental project to help in the development of some nine communities in the area.
He further stressed that the environment surrounding the eastern concession hadn’t been touched.”We are waiting for an approval from the Environmental Protection Agency before operations start, so how then do they talk about us degrading the environment now when actual operation has not began.
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