The African countries meet global standards for resource-wealth accountability, but Gabon is delisted and two others are suspended. Tajikistan applies to join EITI club.
By Stella Dawson
WASHINGTON (TrustLaw) – The Republic of Congo and Burkina Faso have won the global seal of approval for reporting their revenues from natural resources, allowing citizens to track the money their governments earn from oil, gas and mining.
The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, at its board meeting on Wednesday, said the two African countries comply with the global standards for disclosing payments companies make to governments – a standard designed to reduce corruption and encourage more funding for social and economic development in resource-rich countries.
Oil-rich Gabon meanwhile lost EITI backing. President Ali Bongo and his family are suspected of skimming money from government coffers to live lavishly in luxury properties around the world and French investigators recently raided a villa in Nice as part of a probe into his wealth. EITI concluded Gabon has not made sufficient progress in implementing the standards.
Sierra Leone was temporarily suspended to give it more time to correct shortfalls in its disclosure arrangements, while Mauritania and Yemen were reprimanded for not yet producing their 2010 compliance reports.
About 3.5 billion people live in resource-rich countries, yet many see no benefits from extraction of their natural resources, and too often poor governance leaves citizens suffering from conflict and corruption. The EITI brings together government officials, companies and civil society groups in a voluntary accord to address these issues. Currently 20 countries comply with its standards and 17 are candidates, amounting to $960 billion in government revenues.
Congo earns 90 percent of government income from natural resources, or $5.5 billion in 2011. A major share comes from oil and its rising price, along with heightened accountability for resource revenues, has improved the economic health of the country, EITI said.
“EITI is an important tool for the parliament to be able to compare what the companies say they have paid and what the government has actually received,” said Florent Michel Okoko, Congo’s national EITI coordinator.
In Burkina Faso, gold production has more than doubled since 2008 and, along with cotton, is now one of the West African country’s largest exports. Natural resources earned the country $47 million in 2010, and at least 60 international companies operate there in exploration and mining.
Tajikistan, the central Asian country rich in gold, zinc, aluminium and other minerals, was accepted as a candidate country, giving it two and half years to meet the standards. Timurali Avganov, head of budget in Tajikistan’s Ministry of Finance, said EITI will create a level playing field to discuss natural resource wealth with voters and companies.
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