Oil and mining transparency initiative must meet challenges to remain relevant, says Publish What You Pay
Date: 2 Mar 2011
Publish What You Pay, the global civil society coalition, today urged the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) to take bold steps to ensure it remains robust and meaningful over the next two years.
Speaking at the opening of the fifth EITI Global Conference in Paris, France, PWYP International Coordinator Radhika Sarin said: “The EITI has been a ground-breaking initiative which has put revenue transparency firmly on the agenda, but it now needs to embrace changes which will ensure that transparency leads to true accountability.”
Commenting on the news that 11 countries out of 35 which now implement the international initiative have been designated as EITI Compliant, Anthony Richter of the Revenue Watch Institute and member of the EITI’s multi-stakeholder Board said: “It is clear that the EITI standard for transparency is achievable, the challenge is now for the EITI to ensure strong protection and participation of civil society, embrace new and complementary financial reporting requirements, and widen the scope of the initiative to include issues such as contracts and licensing. These factors will ensure that all citizens are able to benefit from the vast revenues generated from the oil, gas and mining industries.”
Jean Claude Katende, of the Association Africaine de Défense des Droits de l’Homme in the Democratic Republic of Congo and an EITI Board member, spoke of the strides the EITI has made in ensuring the free and active participation of civil society in EITI processes as evidenced by strengthened rules for the initiative in this area. However, Mr Katende also struck a cautionary note: “Civil society campaigners have often suffered harassment for championing the cause of greater openness in the natural resources sector. It is central to the continued credibility of the EITI’s international standing that civil society activists are able to work freely and without fear of interference or threat.”
Publish What You Pay also called on the EITI to embrace complementary financial reporting regulations such as stock exchange listing rules and international accounting standards which will reinforce the impact of EITI. “The US Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of July 2010 which requires all oil, gas and mining companies registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to report their payments to foreign governments on a country-by-country, and a project-by-project basis will greatly strengthen EITI implementation processes and encourage other countries to join the initiative,” said EITI Board member Dorjdari Namkhaijantsan of the Open Society Forum in Mongolia. “We heartily welcome recent announcements by the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy and by the UK Government that both France and Britain will also push for oil, gas and mining transparency laws in the European Union and our hope is that progressively more countries with major capital markets will adopt similar rules,” said Mr. Namkhaijantsan.
As the EITI has grown in terms of implementing countries, so too has stakeholder understanding of the elements that are needed to ensure transparency and accountability in the management of natural resource wealth. “If the EITI is to remain credible and relevant, it will need to extend its scope to areas such as contracts and licenses,” said EITI Board member Hannah Owusu-Koranteng of Wacam, a community-based organisation in Ghana. “Citizens have the right to know not only how much their country earns from the sale of its natural resources but also whether this amounts to a fair deal,” said Ms Owusu-Koranteng.
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Media contact:
Joseph Williams, Advocacy and Communications Officer
+44 7775 751 170
jwilliams@publishwhatyoupay.org
Publish What You Pay (PWYP) is a global civil society network with over 600 member groups across more than 50 resource-rich countries like Nigeria, Angola, Cambodia and Kazakhstan which are united in their call for oil, gas and mining revenues to form the basis for development and improve the lives of ordinary citizens in resource-rich countries.
