WSJ: Tax Disputes Flare as Africa Fights ‘Secret’ Oil Deals

Sitting before a parliamentary oversight committee last month, two top executives from Tanzania Petroleum Development Corp. declined to reveal details of billions of dollars in gas contracts that the state company had signed with foreign investors. Parliamentarians had a sharp riposte: They called the police.

The two company board members had argued they needed permission from their investors before they disclosed details of the deal. But soon after a police officer showed up, the executives were fumbling with their paperwork, according to lawmakers who attended the hearing—but in the end, they didn’t release any documents.

The executives were escorted out of the parliamentary building and into a police truck. They were briefly taken into custody, detained for a few hours and released without charges.

“Companies must accept the era of secrecy is over,” says Zitto Kabwe, the head of the Tanzanian parliament’s public-accounts committee, who witnessed the scene.
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