EITI reaffirms its leadership on revenue transparency

Board agrees how to require project-by-project reporting and decides the status of seven countries.

Thursday 9 March, Bogota – The EITI Board today decided how the EITI is requiring that reporting has to be done at project level in the 51 implementing countries. With this decision, the EITI remains the leading standard for transparency in revenues.

At its meeting in Bogotá, Colombia, the EITI Board also agreed to assess the performance of its 51 implementing countries against the EITI Standard. It found Ghana, Mauritania and Sao Tome e Principe, to have made meaningful progress.

The Board also found that the Kyrgyz Republic, the Solomon Islands and Tajikistan had made inadequate progress and set the corrective actions they need to take to continue on the path towards meeting the EITI Standard. While the Board welcomed that Azerbaijan had taken further steps to meet the EITI Standard, it was assessed not to have fully met the corrective actions related to civil society space set by the Board in October. 

EITI Chair, Fredrik Reinfeldt said:

“I am delighted that the Board has set out how EITI countries are to report by project. This is a big step forward in the global effort to ensure contracts are enforced and taxes properly paid and collected in the sector. In addition, it is good to see that the EITI’s new way of assessing countries is working. The Board was pleased that another three countries had made meaningful progress and committed its continued support the others in their efforts to meet the Standard.”

Project level reporting at the global level – reflecting existing practices

Project level reporting is an additional level of information, illustrating how companies operate in individual extractives project. Publishing project-level information can allow the public to monitor and assess the extent to which the government receives what it ought to from each individual extractive project, as payments can be compared with the fiscal terms set out in the laws or contract governing the project. For host communities, it could also contribute to show the contribution made by each project. Several EITI implementing countries already report by project including Azerbaijan, Indonesia and Trinidad and Tobago.

The Board agreed that each country should devise and apply a definition of the term project that is consistent with relevant national laws and systems as well as international norms. Project level reporting is required for all reports covering fiscal years ending on or after 31 December 2018.

Tracking progress against the Standard

The EITI adopted a new Standard in February 2016 and presently all countries are being assessed as to whether they have made satisfactory, meaningful, inadequate or no progress against the Standard. The Board assessed Ghana, Mauritania and Sao Tome and Principe, to have made meaningful progress and commended them on the impact of their processes. The Board concluded that the progress in the Kyrgyz Republic, the Solomon Islands and Tajikistan was inadequate and set out corrective actions and timelines to make progress. 

In October 2016, the Board had concluded that Azerbaijan had made meaningful progress in implementing the 2016 EITI Standard, but that it had not made satisfactory progress on civil society engagement. Accordingly, it set some corrective actions. The Board agreed that whilst progress had been made on these actions, they had not been fully completed (see analysis).   

In reaching these decisions, the Board recognised the complexity of the challenges facing the countries. The Board commended EITI stakeholders in those countries and committed to support the process to address the unmet issues. 

Notes

• The EITI is the global standard for the governance of oil, gas and mining.
• It is led by a coalition of governments, companies, civil society groups, investors and international organisations, the EITI Board. 
• EITI is chaired by Fredrik Reinfeldt. Mr Reinfeldt was the Prime Minister of Sweden (2006-2014). 
• 51 countries are members of the EITI. No country has yet made satisfactory progress with the 2016 EITI Standard. See the list of countries at www.eiti.org/countries.
• See here for a full explanation of the various levels of progress under the EITI Standard.
• View the full Validation results by country:
  • Ghana: Meaningful progress
  • Kyrgyz Republic: Inadequate progress
  • Mauritania: Meaningful progress 
  • Sao Tomé and Principé: Meaningful progress 
  • Solomon Islands: Inadequate progress 
  • Tajikistan: Inadequate progress
• Full explanation of the various levels of progress under the EITI Standard. 
• Eleven countries have completed Validation since October 2016