Timor-Leste: EITI Validation highlights the potential of embedding transparency

First Validation concludes meaningful progress

Wednesday 11 January - Timor-Leste has made meaningful progress in implementing the EITI Standard. The international EITI Board reached this decision following the recently published EITI Validation report. Validation is the EITI’s independent evaluation mechanism. Having been compliant with the EITI Rules since 2010, this is the first time Timor-Leste is tested against the EITI Standard.

• View the full decision including the scorecard and supporting documentation

One of the key findings from Validation is the extent to which transparency is already embedded into government institutions and practices overseeing the oil sector in Timor-Leste. Recent information about licenses, production, revenues and spending of the petroleum fund is readily available to the public, a testament to the government’s commitment to transparency. Nonetheless, the EITI has provided an important multi-stakeholder platform for discussions and debates about oil sector management. This has enabled the public to raise concerns in particular around how the oil money is spent, and provided a channel of feedback to government representatives.

Fredrik Reinfeldt, Chair of the EITI, said:

“The government of Timor-Leste’s commitment and results in terms of achieving transparency across the extractive sector is exemplary.  I hope that the government will now consider moving towards fully embedding EITI implementation into their systems.”

Timor-Leste‘s first attempt at Validation shows that although the Government of Timor-Leste has taken steps to address all requirements of the EITI Standard, there is still room for improvement in some areas. Companies and civil society should strengthen their engagement on EITI implementation. The reluctance by industry to publish tax data disaggregated by individual tax payers remains a major challenge. Accordingly, the EITI Board decided on a set of corrective actions that Timor-Leste needs to complete to address the Board’s concerns. Progress with these corrective actions will be assessed in a second Validation commencing on 11 January 2018.  

Validation scorecard

Notes

• The EITI is a coalition of governments, companies, civil society groups, investors and international organisations. Learn more at eiti.org.
• 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.
   
• Validation is the EITI’s independent evaluation mechanism. It assesses countries against progress made in meeting the 2016 Standard.
• The Board decision in full can be found here: https://eiti.org/board-decision/2017-4
• The reports giving an extensive review of Timor-Leste's extractive sector can be found here: https://eiti.org/document/validation-timorleste-2016-reports
• The Board has taken decisions on the status of three more countries on 11 January: Mongolia, Nigeria and Peru 
• See here for a full explanation of the various levels of progress under the EITI Standard.

For further information about the EITI Timor-Leste, please visit the country page on the EITI website and the national EITI website.