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Zambia declared EITI Compliant

Zambia declared EITI Compliant

The EITI Board today (19 September) declared Zambia 'Compliant' with the EITI standard. The EITI (Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative) is the global standard that ensures transparency of the revenues from a country’s extractive sector. Zambia becomes the 15th EITI compliant country and the first in the East Africa region. EITI compliance means that the country has an effective process for annual disclosure and reconciliation of all revenues from its extractive sector, allowing citizens to see how much their country receives from oil, gas and mining companies.

Zambia was among the top global copper producers in the 1970s. Decades of underinvestment and ageing infrastructure followed and when there was a collapse in the global price of copper in the late 1990s, the sector was nearly ruined. However, major rehabilitation work in many of the mines and improved economic management has attracted large foreign investment over the past decade. The latest EITI report notes that the sector brought in over US$ 500m in revenue to the Zambian government in 2009.

Clare Short, Chair of the international EITI Board congratulated Zambia.

“Zambia has not benefitted as it should from its plentiful copper and other mineral resources. This has been partly due to poor governance and partly due to ungenerous contracts. EITI compliance is a basic platform that encourages the transparency necessary for Zambians to be able to agree how best to address these challenges and is an important step on the way to better management. I congratulate the Zambian Committee on this excellent achievement."

The decision of the EITI Board on the EITI status of Zambia in full:

  • The EITI Board designates Zambia as EITI Compliant as of 19 September 2012. In accordance with the EITI Rules;
  • Zambia must be revalidated within 5 years (i.e., by 19 September 2017);
  • Stakeholders in the process may call for a new validation at any time within that period if they think the process needs reviewing;
  • Where valid concerns exist that a country has become EITI Compliant, but its implementation of the EITI has subsequently fallen below the standard required for Compliance, then the Board reserves the right to require the country to undergo a new validation or face delisting from the EITI;
  • In accordance with the 2011 edition of the EITI Rules, Zambia is required to produce EITI reports annually. EITI Reports should cover data no older than the second to last complete accounting period (e.g. an EITI Report published in calendar/financial year 2013 should be based on data no later than calendar/financial year 2011); and
  • In accordance with requirement 21(c), Zambia is required to publish a public report annually on the previous year’s activities, detailing progress in implementing the EITI and any recommendations from the validator. The Board congratulates the government of Zambia for its sustained commitment and leadership of the EITI process. The Board also congratulates the Zambia EITI Council for its efforts and effective leadership in EITI implementation. The Board calls on the government and multi-stakeholder working group to ensure that the Board’s recommendations are implemented in full, and tasks the EITI International Secretariat with providing regular progress reports to the EITI Board.

Countries
Zambia