CRUDE ACCOUNTABILITY LETTER TO MS. RACHEL KYTE
Ms. Rachel Kyte
Director
Environment and Social Development Department
International Finance Corporation
2121 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20433
September 29, 2005
Dear Rachel:
I am writing in regard to the IFC’s ongoing involvement with the KPO project at Karachaganak and to request information about several issues.
1. We understand from your conversation last week with my colleague, Aleksey Knizhnikov, and from Mr. Kaldany, that the IFC recently sent a team to Karachaganak. We would appreciate the opportunity to meet with the team when they return to learn about their findings. We would like to schedule this meeting with you and the team for a mutually agreeable time.
2. We would like to request that the annual monitoring report be made public, and request a copy of the most recent reports.
3. As you are aware, the Kazakhstan Oblast environmental authority denied KPO’s operating license in April 2005. We are interested to know the IFC’s response to this decision, as it was made because of KPO’s numerous environmental violations, including emitting 56 thousand tons of toxic waste into the atmosphere in 2004, improper storage of toxic solid waste on the Karachaganak field and dumping toxic effluent into the water table.
I look forward to your response and to meeting with you and the IFC team that traveled to Karachaganak upon their return.
Sincerely,
Kate Watters
Executive Director
Cc: Meg Taylor, Amar Inamdar, Heike Mainhardt, Aleksey Knizhnikov