RAPAPORT… Diamond miners Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton were both ranked in second place in terms of their level of transparency on a list of the world’s 105 biggest publicly-traded corporations by non-governmental organization Transparency International.
The group’s Transparency in Corporate Reporting index assessed each company based on the level of disclosures, such as earnings and taxes reported as well as a their transparency footprint across 177 countries. The index also measured the company’s ability to fight corruption within its ranks. The assessments score each company’s transparency on a scale from one to 10.
Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton each earned a score of 7.2, however, two other companies involved one way or another in the diamond and jewelry industry — Amazon and Berkshire Hathaway — both scored in the bottom 10 for lack of transparency.
The report also found that of the 105 companies, 50 did not disclose revenue or sales information, 85 did not disclose income tax information, and 35 did not disclose any financial data in a country where it operations.
There were some bright points. The number of companies that reported on their corruption prevention programs, for example, rose to around two-thirds of the total, up from about 50 percent in 2009, the last time Transparency International analyzed corporate transparency.