BP and this disaster demonstrate why transparency is the
foundation of trust and accountability.
Before the oil spill, during the worst of it, and to this very day, BP CEO Tony Hayward and his company have continuously resisted being transparent. They were stingy with information on environmental, health, and safety information well before the accident (see today's Daily Beast's article). Once it happened they showed zero interest in measuring or
disclosing the true amount of oil coming out of the well. They
released information on their repair operations on a "need to know
basis." Why all the cat-and-mouse?
NPR science correspondent Richard Harris commented, "[W]e have to
remember this isn't NASA. We're not watching a spacewalk; we're not
watching a launch. This is a company whose stock value rides up and
down, depending upon the ebb and flow of events. So they have some
business rationale for not telling us about every twist and turn that's
going on. And in fact, they end up being sometimes rather stingy with
information." ().
Huh. They have a "business rationale" for being stingy with
information? Maybe they have "a" rationale, but it's a terrible one.
Sure the stock fluctuates but if Tony and the gang are still running
the company based on the daily stock price, then we've got really big problems.
Transparency is the basis of accountability. Particularly in a free society and a market-based economy, we need data. Without accurate, verifiable data, markets can't function because no one can really trust and rely on anyone else. No one can or will trust Tony Hayward because he and BP aren't transparent. No matter what they say, no matter what they do to try to "make good", without transparency we simply can't trust them. They're not actually BEING responsible until they're transparent.
What does it take to actually BE responsible? Here's a hint: doing good does NOT make you responsible. Read more about the big take away from this disaster.