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East Timor, which began complying with the EITI (Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative) in July last year, held a conference called “Beyond EITI: Timor-Leste Transparency Model,” last week.
Local non-governmental organisation La’o Hamutuk applauded the government’s efforts to make petroleum management transparent. However, it added: “We feel that this is not yet enough to ensure that petroleum revenues will benefit all our citizens today and in the future,” pointing to policies which support confidentiality and secrecy.
It said the conference ignored key issues such as recently passed laws that weakened the Petroleum Fund and released a statement with some thoughts on the key issues that may impede East Timor’s quest for more transparency and better governance.
EITI says it supports improved governance in resource-rich countries through the verification and full publication of company payments and government revenues from oil, gas and mining.
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