Publish What You Pay

Without full information on the quantity, quality and location of a country’s natural resources, citizens will not be able to make informed decisions over whether and how resources should be extracted and whether they are getting a fair deal for these.

Changing the Rules

Whether through consultation or advocacy, civil society should – where possible – seek to influence these legal frameworks (Petroleum Bills, Mining codes etc) to ensure that transparency and accountability is integrated into the natural resource management process from the start.

CSOs can help ensure that communities are fully informed as to the consequences, effects and benefits of an extractive project. Impact assessments should be carried out in a transparent and independent manner and made accessible to the local communities and compensation should be planned for any anticipated detrimental effects.

Contract Transparency

Licences and contracts – which will determine whether a deal is fair– must be awarded in a transparent manner. To ensure that contracts are awarded in the interests of the whole citizenry, bidding should be competitive and public and contracts should be published.

Civil society has a crucial role here in providing oversight and acting as a watchdog. Projects need to be monitored by government and industry but also through independent mechanisms and civil society, to ensure that any change in circumstance or contractual breaches can be rectified, whether through legal recourse for human rights abuses or via extra compensation or other means.

Mandatory Disclosures

EITI

We need to advocate for companies to publish what they pay, so that citizens can find out how much their country is receiving for their natural resources and hold their government to account. The divulgation of company payments will also help ensure that companies do not avoid certain payments through accounting sleights of hand.

EITI

To ensure that money is not siphoned off or “lost”, governments need to be transparent and report their natural resource revenues (whatever level of government these were destined to). Civil society should be able to track payments and revenues for each project and ensure the amounts companies pay and governments receive match.

Civil society has a role to play in pushing for budget transparency – and advocate on budget prioritisation and allocation – to ensure that money is allocated transparently and equitably.

Once revenue has been allocated, civil society can monitor whether the money reached its agreed destination and advocate for rectification if the money goes missing en route.

There should be an independent impact assessment made to evaluate whether the money generated was correctly spent and contributed to development and the improvement of the lives of citizens.

There should be regular assessments by all parties including civil society to ensure that longer-term frameworks are correct and still relevant. Civil society can play a valuable role by publicly raising concerns where frameworks and agreements are evidently no longer fit for purpose.

Although it is far down the line, it is important to consider how an extractive project – and the economy that sprang around it – is effectively dismantled and decommissioned to create the least damage to the local community.