Madagascar

The government has shown encouraging signs of its commitment to the EITI. Nevertheless, statements of support at the high-level have not consistently been matched by concrete efforts to support all aspect of EITI implementation at the operation level since June 2018, as evidenced by uneven awareness of the EITI by different agencies represented on the MSG, limited support to the funding and sustainability of the process in the period under review, limited activities to follow-up on recommendations from EITI reporting and delayed nomination of government representatives on the MSG in 2019.

Companies are fully, actively and effectively engaged in the EITI process, both as providers of information and in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the EITI process. The government has ensured that there is an enabling environment for company participation. Despite constraints imposed by confidentiality provisions of the tax code, the waiver system designed by the MFB has provided a means of facilitating company reporting. In the International Secretariat’s view, the industry constituency has made efforts to go beyond the minimum requirement in the quality, consistency and proactive nature of its engagement in all aspects of EITI implementation. Amidst weakening engagement from the other two constituencies, such engagement has been key to ensuring the sustainability of EITI implementation.

Both publicly available evidence and stakeholder consultations point to a positive tendency in civil society’s engagement in EITI implementation. At least two civil society representatives contribute actively and regularly to the process, and civil society organisations had participated in several capacity-building and outreach activities in the period under review. There are several examples of advocacy and policy recommendations issued by civil society organisations on key developments of the sector. Nonetheless, their engagement remains affected by limited capacity and resources, the lack of participation from a majority of representatives on the MSG and the challenges in securing nominations for vacant seats on the MSG, which reflect gaps in the broader constituency’s engagement. Uneven engagement of the broader civil society constituency has led to the duties and responsibilities of actively participating in all aspects of EITI implementation being placed on two civil society stakeholders, thereby exacerbating the constituency’s capacity constraints. In addition, the International Secretariat did not find evidence indicating any backsliding on adherence to the Civil Society Protocol, as confirmed in stakeholder consultations.

Based on available documentation and stakeholder views, meetings were not consistently announced in a timely manner in the period under review, nor were MSG discussions and decisions regularly recorded. There was consensus that deviations in practice from MSG TORs were due to significant funding and capacity challenges that prevented the national secretariat from providing administrative support to the MSG. Stakeholders consulted also raised concerns around the representative nature of MSG members for the oil and gas sub-constituency and noted challenges in securing nominations for vacant CSO seats.

The work plan reflects MSG priorities for EITI implementation, is updated annually and is the product of consultations with key stakeholders. It includes time-bound, measurable and costed activities, taking into consideration funding and capacity constraints. The work plan includes specific activities to follow up on recommendations from EITI reporting. Delays in work plan implementation appear reasonable given funding constraints.

Madagascar has disclosed information on the legal framework and fiscal regimes governing the extractive industries, including a comprehensive description of the three co-existing mining legal frameworks and the degree of fiscal devolution. Tje 2014 EITI Report includes information on the roles and responsibilities of some government agencies, and information on the roles and responsibilities of relevant government entities is accessible through the EITI Madagascar website. The report also describes ongoing reforms.

EITI reporting has been instrumental in identifying the award and transfers of licenses in the mining sector in the context of the ongoing moratorium, a priority issue for the management of the sector in Madagascar. With regards to technical and financial criteria, EITI reporting contributed meaningfully to public debate by highlighting the absence of such criteria in awarding and transferring licenses in the mining sector. While EITI reporting has been key in identifying inefficiencies in the management of licenses in the extractive sector, some gaps in disclosures related to license transfers remain. The 2018 EITI Report does not comment on the statutory process for transferring oil and gas licenses, nor does it comment on potential non-trivial deviations in practice in the transfer of licenses, both in the mining and oil and gas sectors.

Madagascar disclosed the mandated information under Requirement 2.3 for oil and gas licenses in 2014 and commented on the existence of publicly available registers at the end of 2016. Gaps in information on mining licenses in the 2014 EITI Report were offset by the BCMM’s new online cadastre or accessibility upon request from BCMM.

The MSG should be commended for its efforts in clarifying the government’s policy and prompting the oil and gas company association APPAM to state its support for contract disclosure. EITI reporting allowed to document the practice in contract disclosure and identify gaps, including highlighting that the disclosure of the profit oil split was considered particularly sensitive. Despite this, the government’s policy remains unclear. Stakeholder consultations confirmed challenges in contract disclosure, both from the government’s and the industry’s perspectives.

The 2014 EITI Report does not clarify the government’s policy on beneficial ownership disclosure in the extractives sector. While it provides information on the legal owners of roughly half of the material companies, the identity of shareholders of companies incorporated in Madagascar are available from the Registry for Trade and Companies (RCS) website, albeit only for registered members at a fee.

The 2018 EITI Report correctly defines KRAOMA as a SOE, but explicitly omits OMNIS as a SOE despite the latter’s representation of the state in oil and gas contracts and as owner of equity in several mining companies. The report describes the rules and practices related to the financial relations between both KRAOMA and OMNIS and the government, including those related to distribution of profits, retained earnings, reinvestments and third-party financing. It presents a comprehensive list of state participations in the mining, oil and gas sectors, but does not consistently describe the terms associated with the SOEs’ equity in these extractives companies. One change in state participation in 2018, the creation of KRAOMA MINING JV, is described, including the terms of the transaction. The report only confirms the lack of loans from government and SOEs to extractives companies, but does not comment on the existence of any guarantees. There was consensus however among stakeholders consulted that there were no guarantees to extractives companies in 2018.

The 2014 EITI Report provides an overview of the extractive sector, including exploration activities. In the International Secretariat’s view, Madagascar has also gone beyond the minimum requirements by providing additional information on ASM including on the value chain, license award and two detailed cases studies, as encouraged by the Standard and of high value to stakeholders.

The 2014 EITI Report provides data on production volumes and values for most minerals, disaggregated by commodity and producing region. Missing figures for Kraoma’s production can be calculated based on export data (see Requirement 3.3). Although data is incomplete for dolomite, calcite and kaolin production, it is not material in the International Secretariat’s view. These minerals are destined for quarrying activities, which have been assessed as outside of the scope of the EITI in other instances by the EITI Board. The report confirms the lack of commercial oil production in 2014.

The 2014 EITI Report provides export volumes and values for each commodity exported and producing region. While the export value of one company’s quartzite export is missing, the latter is a quarrying material and therefore not considered substantial in the International Secretariat’s view (see Requirement 3.2). This is also offset by extensive information provided on the country’s illicit exports of gold and precious stones. Madagascar has made remarkable efforts to compare existing data and highlight the loss in fiscal revenues.

The 2018 EITI report addresses most aspects of Requirement 4.1, aside from full unilateral government disclosure of revenues, for each of the material revenue streams, from all mining, oil and gas companies, including those below the materiality threshold. Despite the MSG’s convoluted approach to selecting material companies, the approach ensured that all companies making more than USD 125,000 in payments to government were included in the scope of reporting. The report provides full government unilateral disclosures of extractives revenues for all revenue streams for the 70 largest companies. It provides full disclosure of revenues from oil and gas companies and of administrative fee (FA) payments from mining companies. The Secretariat’s assessment is that the 2018 EITI Report is transparent about practical challenges to sourcing comprehensive non-tax information from companies beyond the 70 and thus considers this gap to be of marginal importance.

The 2014 EITI Report clearly states that the government did not collect any revenues in-kind in 2014.

The 2014 EITI Report demonstrates that there were no barters or infrastructure provisions in force in 2014.

The 2018 EITI Report demonstrates that the government and SOEs do not receive revenues from the transportation of extractives commodities. Nonetheless, the report reflects efforts to go beyond the minimum requirement by describing the different private transportation arrangements for extractives commodities and reconciling company payments for the use of port infrastructure.

The 2014 EITI Report states that there were no financial transactions between extractives SOEs and the state and there is no evidence of dividend payments from QMM to OMNIS and from MCM to NASSCO. Stakeholder consultations confirmed the lack of payments from extractives companies to government entities and from KRAOMA to the government.

The 2018 EITI Report clarified the absence of material subnational payments in the extractive sector. It confirmed that no “ristournes” were paid directly to local governments by material companies in the period under review, as confirmed by stakeholder consultations.

The 2018 EITI Report documents the MSG’s approach to project-level reporting, although this is based on a per-mine rather than per-license basis. The reconciled financial data is de facto disaggregated by license for only six of the 17 material companies.

The 2014 EITI Report was published within two years of the end of the fiscal period under review, in December 2016, and the MSG agreed the reporting period.

There is evidence that the MSG approved the ToR for its Independent Administrator in line with the template, oversaw procurement of the IA for the 2018 EITI Report and approved the reporting templates. Summary data for the 2017 and 2018 EITI Reports were submitted to the International Secretariat for comments in December 2019. The 2018 EITI Report covers most aspects of Requirement 4.9, aside from a statement by the IA on the comprehensiveness and reliability of the reconciled financial data. However, after the start of Validation, EITI Madagascar published an addendum to the 2018 EITI Report that included the IA’s assessment that it did not uncover any elements that would put into question the comprehensiveness and reliability of reconciled financial data in the report.

The 2018 EITI Report clearly lists and provides the value of extractives revenues not recorded in the national budget. While it provides only a cursory explanation of their management, the publication of the audited financial statements of BCMM, OMNIS, ANOR and KRAOMA for 2017 and 2018 provides information on the management of these off-budget revenues, even if these have not been analysed in detail to date.

Madagascar EITI’s work on subnational transfers is commendable as an example of EITI implementation’s meaningful contribution to public debate on an issue of national priority. The 2018 EITI Report not only includes detailed information about the disbursement of Ambatovy’s ristournes, it also provides an assessment of challenges in the effective transfer of extractive revenues and information about revenue management at the local level. However, EITI reporting has not provided data disaggregated by local government unit on statutory shares VS effective transfers, both for FAM and for ristournes paid by all extractive companies except for Ambatovy, as well as QMM after the start of Validation.

It is encouraging that Madagascar provided additional information on revenue management and expenditures.

The 2014 EITI Report presents information on companies’ mandatory social expenditures disaggregated by project and beneficiary. While the results are not presented disaggregated between cash and in-kind, the IA confirmed that all mandatory social expenditures are paid in-kind. Madagascar has also made efforts to go beyond the minimum requirements by providing additional information on discretionary social expenditures.

There is evidence that the MSG has considered quasi-fiscal expenditures since the first Validation. While the 2018 EITI Report correctly categorises two types of quasi-fiscal expenditures by OMNIS in the year under review, it provides insufficient information on the nature of the second expenditure. However, after the start of Validation (in February 2020), the OMNIS website published disaggregated information on its quasi-fiscal expenditures in 2018, achieving a level of transparency commensurate with other payments and revenue streams.

EITI reporting provides data on the extractive industries’ contribution to GDP, government revenues and employment, as well as an overview of extractives activities. While it only provides official estimates of exports in absolute terms, it is possible to calculate the relative share of total exports based on data provided.

Madagascar has ensured that the EITI Report is comprehensible, actively promoted, publicly accessible and contributes to public debate. While there is little evidence of outreach and dissemination to communities in mining regions in the 2015-2017 period, the assessment of Requirement 7.1 must be taken in the context of broader funding challenges (see Requirement 1.5) and uneven engagement across different constituencies (see Requirement 1.4).

Madagascar’s EITI data was not publicly-available in machine readable format at the start of Validation, although EITI Madagascar had prepared draft summary data tables in line with Board guidance prior to September 2017. EITI Madagascar has published summaries of EITI Reports and made EITI information available in local languages.

Despite limited resources, the MSG has taken steps to act upon lessons learnt, including on causes of discrepancies, and consider recommendations resulting from EITI reporting. Despite the lack of institutionalised framework for follow-up on EITI recommendations, tangible government reforms have been enacted following for the latter.

The 2016 annual progress report reflects efforts to strengthen EITI implementation and provides information on progress in implementing EITI Requirements and work plan objectives. However, the report does not provide an assessment of the impact of the implementation of these objectives. There are also concerns that the annual progress report does not reflect the views of most stakeholders.