Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative
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An Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (or EITI) announced by UK Prime Minister Tony Blair at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, September 2002, expressed as its aim to increase transparency over payments by companies to governments and to government-linked entities, as well as transparency over revenues by those host country governments. Ghana, Nigeria and Azerbaijan, piloted the EITI approach. As of September 2006, EITI is being implemented in some twenty resource rich countries around the world. Three countries Azerbaijan, Guinea and Nigeria have produced EITI reports; another five are expected to do so shortly.
Revenues from oil, gas and mining companies, in the form of taxes, royalties, signature bonuses and other payments should be an important engine for economic growth and social development in developing and transition countries. However, the lack of accountability and transparency in these revenues can exacerbate poor governance and lead to corruption, conflict and poverty.
EITI has issued a set of reporting guidelines, a Statement of Principles, available on its official website, and six Criteria which represent the gloabl minum standard for EITI implementation. EITI received official endorsement from the World Bank Group, announced December 9, 2003. The World Bank pioneered pressure for structuring revenue transparency in several high-profile extractive industries projects in the opening years of the 21st century, including the Chad-Cameroon pipeline and the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline.
In May 2005, an International Advisory Group (IAG) was established under the Chairmanship of Peter Eigen. Members of the IAG included: the Governments of Azerbaijan, France, Nigeria, Norway, Peru and the United States; AngloAmerican, BP, Chevron and Petrobras; the Azerbaijan EITI Coalition, Global Witness, Revenue Watch Institute, West African Catholic Bishops Conference; and F&C Assets Management. It was supported by the UK Government, the IMF and the World Bank. It is reporting to the next EITI Conference in Oslo in mid-October 2006.
