Iraq’s national oil companies are audited by the Iraqi Board of Supreme Audit (BSA) based on local Iraqi accounting standards. When originally developed in the 1980s, these standards were based on International Accounting Standards (IAS). Since then the BSA’s standards have been updated, but not in accordance with the IAS. During the course of reconciling differences for the first IEITI Report, the Independent Administrator found that differences in the accounting standards created an “understanding gap between national oil companies as compared with the industry practice”.

All of Iraq EITI’s reports recommend that “National Oil Companies should be audited in accordance with International Accounting Standards and International Financial Reporting Standards”.

The EITI reports also recommend that buyers provide their audited financial statements yearly to the state’s oil marketing company, SOMO, to ensure that these are in fact available upon request. The Government of Iraq has not yet implemented these recommendations.

The EITI encourages multi-stakeholder groups to explore innovative approaches to make the EITI more relevant and useful.

• EITI Report covers export sales of oil, disaggregated by buying company.
• EITI Report includes detailed production figures and a chapter on mining in Iraq.
• EITI Report covers government payments to companies for remuneration fees, cost recovery and internal service payments (to national oil companies). 
• Iraq's national oil companies have published their financial statements for 2016-2017 on their respective websites for the first time.  

Iraq was accepted as an EITI Candidate country by the Board on 10 February 2010. The first EITI Report covering 2009 was published in December 2011. As of May 2020, Iraq has published EITI Reports covering eight fiscal years (2009-2017).  In an unprecedented gathering of civil society representatives from all over the country, Iraq EITI refreshed part of its multi-stakeholder group in December 2014. The EITI Board declared Iraq compliant with the EITI Rules on 12 December 2012. 

In February 2014, Iraq EITI submitted a request for adapted implementation, being unable to guarantee the comprehensive disclosure of material payments collected by the KRG. The Board approved the request for the 2012 and 2013 EITI Reports. Following protracted negotiations between the IEITI and the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), the Iraq EITI produced an update of its 2010 report in May 2013, including a chapter on Kurdistan’s oil and gas production and revenues from exports, assessed by the Supreme Audit Board. In December 2018, Iraq EITI submitted a new request for adapted implementation, being unable to guarantee the comprehensive disclosure of material payments collected by the KRG. The Board approved the request in April 2019 for the 2016-2018 EITI Reports.

The current objectives for Iraq's EITI implementation (in the 2020 work plan) include improving the enabling environment for the extractive industries, enhancing the transparency and accountability of national and international oil companies, enhancing the environmental sustainability of the extractive industries and improving the broader governance of natural resource management. 

Governance

The multi-stakeholder group is chaired by the Minister of Oil and includes representatives from the Ministry of Oil, Ministry of Finance, Federal Board of Supreme Audit, state-owned oil companies, civil society and the private sector. The Champion is Mr. Ihsan Abdul Jabbar Ismail, Minister of Oil. The National Coordinator is Mr. Alaa Mohie El-Deen. 

Timeline