Kazakhstan takes the lead on timely EITI reporting
Kazakhstan takes the lead on timely EITI reporting
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Kazakhstan is the first country to publish 2014 figures.
With the publication of the 2014 EITI Report on 29 September, Kazakhstan is the first EITI country to release 2014 EITI data. The report documents USD 26.9 billion of government revenue from the extractive sector, constituting more than half of budget revenue and over two thirds of the total exports in 2014.
Despite the country’s significant dependence on the oil sector, the sector’s contribution to total government revenues declined from 73% to 66%, mainly due to the fall in prices. The report documents almost the same revenue in comparison to the previous year in local currency (converted to dollars looks like a significant decline).
At the same time, payments by companies for social projects have increased. The national oil company KazMunaiGaz and its subsidiaries alone increased their social expenditures by nearly 50%, to almost USD 70 million. This figure is not included in the total government revenue from extractive resources, as these payments are paid from companies directly to the regions.
Maria Lobacheva, from the civil society organisation “Echo” said that: “The 2014 EITI Report provides a comprehensive picture of the extractive sector of Kazakhstan. The NSC had extensive discussions to make sure that this report provides in-depth information about all revenues and payments and to satisfy the public hunger for such information.”
Chair of the NSC and the Chairman of the Committee of Geology and Subsoil Use Bazarbai Nurabaev added: “Production of the 2014 EITI Report proved, yet again, that members of the National Stakeholders Council, despite their vested interests, work well together.”
Improvements to online reporting
Kazakhstan is taking the lead on mainstreaming EITI reporting by requesting that companies file their EITI reports as part of other mandatory reporting for subsoil license holders, using an existing online platform in the Ministry Energy. The system will be further improved. Mr Nurabaev said: “We are now working on improving our electronic reporting system (EGSU) that was launched for collecting data for the EITI Reports. This system proved to be successful during the data collection process for 2012, 2013 and 2014 EITI reports though it still needs some improvement. We now hope to develop it further to allow us to reconcile data automatically. ”
Making the information accessible
A key challenge remains to make sure that the reports are used to promote debate and reforms in the sector. “Most of these numbers do not make much sense unless explained with more detail,” said the National EITI Coordinator Ruslan Baimishev, speaking at the 7th EITI National Conference in Astana where the report was launched. “One of our main objectives is to inform the public and with that in mind we created a popular version of the 2014 EITI Report that shows its core findings and explains the EITI process in Kazakhstan.”
Do you want to find out more about the EITI in Kazakhstan? Visit its country page here.
You can download the 2014 Report in Russian here.