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for the Extractive Industries
Over the last five years there has been much debate about how to properly account for the Extractive Industries (oil, gas and mining). The International Accounting Standards Board has tackled the issue. So have many national accounting standards authorities. The sector has also been subject to greater scrutiny due to the launch of the Publish What You Pay campaign (PWYP) and the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). Despite this, and the support of many within the industry and within the world’s largest accounting firms for one set of accounting standards for this global sector, there has to date been little progress in this direction.
Publish What You Pay coalition partners, Global Witness, Save the Children UK, CARE International UK, CAFOD, the Open Society Institute and Transparency International UK have come together to publish the report "Extracting Transparency: the Need for an International Financial Reporting Standard for the Extractive Industries" (September 2005). The report argues that country-by-country reporting by oil, gas and mining companies on commercial performance, reserves, taxes and other benefits paid to governments, is essential information for investors, analysts and all other users of company financial statements when making investment decisions about extractive companies. This information is also vital to citizens who are concerned with the management of this important global industry.
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