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Resources: Complaint Procedure

The main Complaint procedure that The Corner House has used is the "Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises", a set of voluntary principles and standards adopted by states that belong to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Multinational enterprises operating in or from OECD member states are expected to adhere to these Guidelines.

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DfID investments in alleged money-laundering fronts
BBC Newsnight reports
Peter Marshall, Newsnight

7 July 2014

BBC’s flagship news programme, Newsnight, ran a 10-minute segment on allegations that Britain’s Department of International Development (DfID), through its wholly-owned private equity fund of funds CDC Group, invested in money-laundering fronts for James Ibori, the ex-governor of Nigeria’ oil-rich Delta State, who has been serving a prison sentence in the UK since 2012.

application/msword iconNewsnight transcript

Whistleblower charges UK development agencies with gross maladminstration

Complaint submitted to UK Parliamentary Ombudsman

8 May 2012

Nigerian anti-corruption whistleblower Dotun Oloko today accused  Britain’s Department of International Development (DfID) and its private sector arm, the CDC Group, of jeopardising criminal investigations into potential wrongdoing by two CDC-backed private equity funds, Emerging Capital Partners and Ethos.

In 2009, Mr Oloko supplied DfID with detailed information on investments by the two funds in companies alleged to have acted as money laundering fronts for James Ibori, the former Nigerian state governor who was sentenced last month for money laundering and fraud.

Revised Final Statement on Complaint under OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises

Background and history

9 March 2011

In March 2011, following a Complaint lodged under the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises by six environment and human rights groups (including The Corner House) back in April 2003, the UK government ruled that oil multinational BP is breaking international rules governing the human rights responsibilities of multinational companies in its operations on its Caspian oil pipeline.

file iconComplaint April 2003
file iconNCP Revised Final Statement
file iconImplications of Revised Final Statement

BP violating human rights rules, says UK government

Ruling places BP in breach of its loan agreements, say campaigners

9 March 2011

A BP-led consortium is breaking international rules governing the human rights responsibilities of multinational companies in its operations on the controversial Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, the UK Government ruled today.

file iconNCP Revised Final Statement
file iconPress release

BAE/ Rolls-Royce/ Airbus "may" have broken OECD Guidelines

ECGD destroyed records that would confirm one way or the other

5 November 2010

Under the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, commercial confidentiality cannot be used by corporations as a reason for refusing to supply the names of their agents when requested by competent authorities. This ruling by the UK government was issued in November 2010, six years after The Corner House first submitted a Complaint against BAE, Rolls Royce and Airbus.

file iconComplaint
file iconFinal statement on Airbus
file iconFinal statement on Rolls Royce
file iconFinal statement on BAE

Complaint to EU concerning alleged unlawful state aid to UK's export credit agency
Refinancing through GEFCO raises questions about ECGD's financial losses

23 March 2010

In March 2010, The Corner House and Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) submitted a complaint to the European Commission alleging that the UK gives unlawful state aid to GEFCO, a special purpose vehicle used by the UK's export credit agency, the Export Credits Guarantee Department (ECGD), to refinance its loss-making interest-rate support scheme provided to UK exporters. After much correspondence, it emerged in March 2011 that the complaint should have been directed at the companies receiving the support rather than at GEFCO itself and should have cited a different clause in the WTO's Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures. The groups will submit a new complaint on this basis.

file iconComplaint