By Samantha Cole of Tanzania Business Ethics
This is a public letter regarding Mr. Kelvin Dushnisky (President of Barrick Gold and Chairman of Acacia Mining) to the Honorable State‐Leaders of the following countries:
Tanzania: Hon. President J. P. Magufuli
Canada: Hon. Prime Minister J. Trudeau
Argentina: Hon. President M. Macri
Kenya: Hon. President U. M. Kenyatta
United States: Hon. President B. Obama
Burkina Faso: President R Kaboré
Chile: Hon. President M. Bachelet
Papua New Guinea: Hon. Prime Minister P. O’Neill
Pakistan: Hon. President M. Hussain
Philippines: Hon. President R. Duterte
Dominican Republic: Hon. President D. Medina
United Kingdom: Hon. Prime Minister D. Cameron
To be emailed directly to each State-Leader as well to each Embassy/High Commission in Tanzania with the request to be forwarded to each State-Leader as well as numerous copies to all Authorities, Ministries of Mines, Law Enforcement Agencies worldwide and numerous others including the list at the end of this letter.
Dear Honorable State Leaders,
RE: Fraud and Corruption sponsored by MR. KELVIN DUSHNISKY – The President of Barrick Gold (NYSE: ABX) & Chairman of Acacia Mining (LON: ACA)
Is Mr. Kelvin Dushnisky, President of the biggest gold mining company in the world (Barrick Gold includes Acacia Mining), capable and competent for the position? Why is he NOT held accountable for his companies illegal activities? The main difference between responsibility and accountability is that responsibility can be shared while accountability cannot.
Mr. Dushnisky being accountable, not only means he is responsible for everything he authorises, but also he is ultimately answerable for damages and devastations that his company causes globally. The murders, the rapes, the misery, the damage to environments, the fraud, the corruption, the tax evasion….. This is NOT a Hollywood movie, this is for real! Mr. Dushnisky must be accountable.
Honorable State Leaders, the facts speak for themselves. Let us call a spade, a spade. Mr. Dushnisky runs Barrick Gold and Acacia Mining with a clear tendency and pattern of FRAUD and CORRUPTION.
Regardless of if we call it money FRAUD, human rights FRAUD, environment FRAUD – whatever he decides, is without thinking twice. His bottom line is: “make more money and screw everyone else”.
Have you noticed that almost most of Mr. Dushnisky’s BARRICK mines are located in regions referred to as Developing Regions and Nations? Tanzania, Chile, Papua New Guinea, Argentina, Burkina Faso, Pakistan, Kenya, Philippines, Dominican Republic ?
Let us call a spade a spade…
These Barrick mines are in areas where the labor force is all Black, Brown or Native – all local populations that Barrick can control with their money.
Barrick will take out the gold from the ground as quickly as possible and then run away to their next victim mine.
Please allow us to give a clear picture of the “Kelvin Dushnisky business model” for Barrick Gold and Acacia Mining and the operations of their mines:
1. Manipulate the local Government to give Barrick the land almost for free on the promises of wonderful taxes (if we open the subject of Barrick’s corruption, this letter will never end!)
2. Use the local population labor force and pay them lowest possible salaries – money that workers can never save for their family’s futures after working for years in Barrick mines
3. Make a terrible mess and damages of the local environment that is almost impossible to remedy. Local deaths and rapes and misery by Barrick’s “security” workers.
4. Barrick will pay NO taxes because Barrick complain that they make no profits – but they pay hundreds of millions in Dividends to shareholders overseas using the system of illegal price transferring!
5. As soon as Barrick decide that they want to leave the mine, they close shop and walk away for FREE.
Mr. Dushnisky can never explain :
• the disgusting disparity of mine worker’s salaries in the Barrick North American mines compared to an equivalent Black or Native worker in Chile / Argentina / Tanzania / Papua New Guinea / etc! Does a Barrick mine worker in Nevada USA receive the same salary as the same worker, doing the same job, in a Barrick mine in Tanzania?
• why there are no proportionate percentages of Blacks or Natives in senior management positions.
• why are there no proportionate percentages of Blacks or Natives on the Barrick or Acacia Boards of Directors?
In all the many years of mining in Tanzania, in Chile, in Argentina, in Papua New Guinea, in the Philippines, etc…. how is possible that Mr. Dushnisky never met or trained any of the talented local brain-power to sit in the senior positions in his companies?
Why not? Because they are not “WHITE” !!
Because in Mr. Dushnisky’s world …. When he is right, he is right …. And when he is wrong, then he is still right….. But that is ONLY BECAUSE HE IS WHITE!
Honorable State Leaders, Mr. Dushnisky can NOT show you, what did he and Barrick do for “Developing Regions or Countries”? He can send sophisticated lying lawyers letters. He thinks to pay for a soccer team or contribute to a new clinic is all they must do whilst they cleverly take all the precious gold out of the lands (natural given resources).
And then to add insult to injury, THEY KILL, RAPE, ABUSE, MISTREAT, DESTROY ENVIRONMENTS AND IN THE END, BARRICK STILL PAY LITTLE OR NO TAXES ….
However, Mr. Dushnisky simply sends his sophisticated lawyers and accountants to prove to the Blacks and the Natives why Barrick Gold makes NO PROFITS…. Whilst they pay hundreds of millions of Dollars in Dividends and … let us not forget about the tens of millions of Dollars that they throw around in bonuses!!
Honorable State Leaders, kindly permit us to bring to your attention the very painful and distressing example of Barrick Gold’s two-faced, deceitful and treacherous swindles that they played with the Tulawaka mine in Tanzania:
Internet research tells us:
The original discovery of gold at the Tulawaka mine was in 1998.
Barrick Gold’s involvement was in 2000 via Pangea Goldfields and they operated this mine from 2005 through to 2013.
During those 8 years, from 2005 through to 2013, the mine produced nearly 1 million oz of gold.
That was ALMOST DOUBLE THE QUANTITY OF GOLD OF THE ORIGINAL EXPECTATIONS!
Then suddenly Barrick decided to stop and within a short period of time, they were all gone!!
What did Barrick leave behind after taking 1 million oz of gold ? They certainly did NOT pay much taxes!
They left behind massive unemployment, massive damage to the environment, massive social problems…. All for the Tanzania government to repair and remedy alone. This is the style of Mr. Kelvin Dushnisky… he takes, he rapes and he leaves!
It is NO surprise that President Magufuli said publicly in a speech 2 weeks ago that mining companies who report no profits in Tanzania “better go back to their countries” and the President instructed the Tax Revenue Services to seal the loop holes for tax evasion that the mining companies are using!!
And this is the same style of treatment he gives local mining companies that are partners with Barrick. He will use them and then abuse them – as we see with the very real example of Bismark Limited in Tanzania. On June 3, 2016, Business Times reported that a Tanzanian MP stated in Parliament how Barrick Gold “colluded with certain officials of dubious probity at the Ministry of Energy & Minerals in order to get their support for the Big Miner’s “suppression of small Tanzania mining companies!”
And one thing is for certain…. When Barrick decides to stop operations in their other 3 mines in Tanzania, they will do exactly the same….. they will fraudulently and in a corrupt manner, search for a hole in the system and then sneak out the back door!
Barrick will leave their three mines as “ghost towns” and walk away from total devastation in every direction and sphere.
Honorable State Leaders, on the subject of deceitful and treacherous swindles, kindly permit us to raise the subject of mine labor manipulation and falsification:
Barrick have a system where they bring an overseas labor sub-contractor to their mines. In this case, we refer to the Australian company, BYRNECUT OFFSHORE GROUP who operates in Tanzania on behalf of Barrick Gold. Barrick created a sophisticated system to distance themselves from their labor force by bringing the Australian’s to employ workers. This means that all labor suppression and humiliation problems are directed away from Barrick Gold and to the Australian’s.
What is this scheme for ?
Why bring an Australian company to Africa to hire local workers? Is there no local company in all of Tanzania that can offer this same service?
Or maybe Mr. Dushnisky only relies on the Australian’s because they are white?
Mr. Dushnisky was born in September 1963 and is a qualified lawyer. His career in Barrick Gold began in 2002 and over the past about 14 years, he has worked and been promoted up through the different levels of senior management, up the top of Barrick Gold. On the next pages, you can find a detailed report of Mr. Dushnisky’s employment at Barrick and his other positions and Directorships outside of Barrick.
So, we have established that Mr. Dushnisky, a lawyer, has risen up through the senior management ranks of Barrick over the past 14 years. Undoubtedly, he has been exposed to most issues facing Barrick all around the world – he has been exposed to the full spectrum from the success stories to the crisis situations and tragedies.
A man who earns multi-million dollars a year is paid to deliver to his company full value services – ideally success stories as opposed to crises and tragedies. Whilst one cannot question accidents, one can question a crisis situation and the management skills behind those responsible for solving each and every crisis situation for the benefit of that company.
There have been literally hundreds of crisis situations, disasters and tragedies during the 14 years that Mr. Dushnisky has worked in Barrick. Suffice it to say that Kelvin Dushnisky can boast that “he has seen it all, done it all and got the t-shirt”. However, cynicism aside, one has to ask if Kelvin Dushnisky is the right man for the job?
Certainly he has “seen it all” but is it not obvious that he lacks the managerial skills to actually keep all aspects of the global company on track and under control in Barrick operations around the world? Despite the fact that he has “seen it all”, one would think even more so that he would ensure that problem situations are put to rest immediately that they rear their ugly heads! And better yet, why are the same problems cropping up all the time – year after year and similarities country by country around the world?
But no, Mr. Dushnisky prefers to come out fighting with his sophisticated lawyers and accountants, bullying, intimidating, mistreating and oppressing anything or anyone that might be a “threat” to Barrick. Indeed, these are strong words BUT the facts speak for themselves.
We started this public letter with the question:
Is Mr. Kelvin Dushnisky, President of the biggest gold mining company in the world, capable and competent for the position ?
Attached is a list of problems, disasters and tragedies that go on and on, year after year…. The internet does wonders when researching Barrick and their scandals and indignities. The results do not seem to finish….
What with all these hundreds of crisis situations right under Mr. Dushnisky’s nose during his 14 years in senior management, one must wonder why Barrick do not have a better management team to steer their ship away from these recurring problems?
One must wonder why the Board of Directors and Shareholders and Investors are not sick and tired of hearing about crisis after crisis, over and over again in multiple countries? Does Kelvin Dushnisky not learn from his mistakes?
And, let us not make a mistake here: The buck stops with him and these are effectively his mistakes!
Being accountable not only means being responsible for something but also ultimately being answerable for your actions. Why is Mr. Dushnisky NOT answering for all these failures?
And failures they are because Barrick knows how to prevent these problems, failing which, by now, they should know how to rectify or solve them!
Of course, one cannot question God’s grace and good fortune that Barrick is enjoying with the UK-EU crisis and the surge for gold shares and Barrick’s benefit’s therefrom. Barrick still a captain to be ACCOUNTABLE for the Barrick ship.
Honorable State Leaders, Mr. Dushnisky thinks we may all be underprivileged / unexposed / uneducated / uncivilized “Blacks and Natives” but it is obvious to us that as things stand now, looking at the scenario presented above, it is time for Governments to take pro-active action so that Barrick will change their tendencies and patterns of Fraud and Corruption. Furthermore, it is time for Mr. Dushnisky to move over and allow someone more suitable to step into that position… so that “someone” can truly manage the world’s biggest gold mining company to benefit the underprivileged societies as they take the natural God given resources from the lands of these “Developing Regions”.
Yours faithfully
Samantha Cole
http://www.tanzaniabusinessethics.wordpress.com
http://www.facebook.com/sam.cole.ethics
Copies sent also to :
Canada:
The Governor General of Canada; Hon. Governor General David Johnston
Minister of Foreign Affairs; Hon. Stéphane Dion
Minister of International Trade; Hon. Chrystia Freeland;
Minister of International Development and La Francophonie; Hon. Marie-Claude Bibeau;
Canadian Senate; The Speaker
Canadian House of Commons; The Speaker
Lieutenant Governor of Ontario; Hon. Elizabeth Dowdeswell
Mayor of Toronto; Hon. John Tory
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International Trade Committee |
Foreign Affairs & International Development Committee |
Justice & Human Rights Committee |
| Hon. Mark Eyking Randy Hoback Tracey Ramsey Sukh Dhaliwal Peter Fonseca Linda Lapointe Karen Ludwig Kyle Peterson Hon. GerryRitz Dave Van Kesteren |
Hon Robert D. Nault Dean Allison Hélène Laverdière Hon Tony Clement Peter Fragiskatos Hon Peter Kent Michael Levitt Marc Miller Raj Saini Jati Sidhu |
Anthony Housefather Ted Falk Murray Rankin Chris Bittle Michael Cooper Colin Fraser Ahmed Hussen Iqra Khalid Ron McKinnon Hon. Rob Nicholson |
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Scrutiny of Regulations Committee |
Natural Resources |
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| Hon. Pana Merchant Harold Albrecht Gary Anandasangaree Pierre-Luc Dusseault Hon. Elaine McCoy Hon. Wilfred P. Moore Hon. Bob Runciman Vance Badawey John Brassard Nicola Di Iorio Ali Ehsassi Fayçal El-Khoury Garnett Genuis Bernadette Jordan Tom Kmiec Geng Tan |
James Maloney John Barlow Richard Cannings Hon. Candice Bergen T.J. Harvey Denis Lemieux Michael McLeod Marc Serré Shannon Stubbs Geng Tan |
England:
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
Secretary of State for International Development
Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills
British House of Commons; The Speaker;
British House of Lords; The Speaker
Mayor of London; Hon. Sadiq Khan
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Foreign Affairs Committee |
International Development Committee |
International RelationsCommittee |
| Crispin Blunt Mr John Baron Ann Clwyd Mike Gapes Stephen Gethins Mr Mark Hendrick Adam Holloway Daniel Kawczynski Yasmin Qureshi Andrew Rosindell Nadhim Zahawi |
Stephen Twigg Fiona Bruce Dr Lisa Cameron Stephen Doughty Mr Nigel Evans Mrs Helen Grant Pauline Latham Jeremy Lefroy Wendy Morton Albert Owen Virendra Sharma |
Lord Howell of Guildford Baroness Coussins Lord Grocott Lord Hannay of Chiswick Baroness Helic Baroness Hilton of Eggardon Lord Inglewood Lord Jopling Lord Purvis of Tweed Lord Reid of Cardowan Baroness Smith of Newnham Lord Wood of Anfield |
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Justice |
Human Rights |
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| Robert Neill Richard Arkless Alex Chalk Alberto Costa Philip Davies Chris Elmore Mr David Hanson John Howell Dr Rupa Huq Victoria Prentis Marie Rimmer |
Ms Harriet Harman Fiona Bruce Ms Karen Buck Baroness Hamwee Lord Henley Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon Jeremy Lefroy Mark Pritchard Baroness Prosser Amanda Solloway Lord Trimble Lord Woolf |
USA:
The Secretary of State
Speaker of the House of Representatives
Majority Leader of the House of Representatives
Minority Leader of the House of Representatives
Majority Leader of the Senate
Minority Leader of the Senate
Governor of Alaska
Governor of Nevada
Governor of New York
Governor of New Mexico
