Godwin Agbara and Andrea Reba-Miller - Section 1502: Perspectives from the U.S. GAO

The United States Government Accountability Office is the audit, evaluation and investigation portion of congress.  In 2010, Congress enacted Section 1502(b) of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act to address the exploitation of conflict minerals, which include tin, tantalum, tungsten, and gold, and the extreme levels of violence in the DRC. As required by Section 1502(b), the SEC issued a rule in August 2012 that requires companies to disclose their use of conflict minerals and the origin of those minerals. The act requires GAO to report on the rule’s effectiveness, among other issues, beginning in 2012 and annually thereafter.