Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative

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According to its website the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) seeks through partnerships between government, companies, and civil society to ensure the transparency of payments by companies to government and of revenues received by those governments, to encourage accountability.

Some reports have the origins of the initiative thus:

Proposed by UK Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2002 and endorsed by the G8 countries, the multi-stakeholder Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative supports improved governance in resource-rich countries through publication and verification of company payments and government revenues from oil, gas and mining.

Peter Eigen was offered "an invitation from Gareth Thomas, the UK's minister for international development, to lead an International Panel to take forward the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI)."

EITI currently funds activities in Azerbaijan, Cameroon, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Mauritania, Mongolia, Niger, Nigeria, São Tomé and Principe, and Timor Leste. More than 15 other countries are either discussing their participation with EITI or have endorsed the Initiative and are currently preparing to implement it.

Critique

In his book 'Corporate social responsibility and international development: is business the solution?', Michael Hopkins notes the unregulated nature of the EITI which has led to some countries and companies making false claims to fulfill EITI guidance, in fact using it as a cover to continue variously corrupt and non-transparent operations, whilst benefiting from the positive image of being an EITI member;

Richard Murphy, an independent chartered accountant analysed the EITI Reporting Guidelines and the EITI Source Book and found that they had "major flaws, inconsistencies and opt-outs which could allow a country or company to claim to be implementing EITI without providing anything like a clear picture of revenue flows".[1]

International Advisory Group Members

Supporting Industry Associations

Members: Alcoa, CVRD, Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold, Gold Fields, Mitsubishi Materials, Nippon Mining & Metals, Sumitomo Metal Mining, Teck Cominco, and Zinifex. [2]

Supporters

Secretariat

Supporting International Organisations

Supporting Companies

African Rainbow Minerals | Alcoa | AMG Advanced Metallurgical Group | Anglo American | AngloGold Ashanti | Anvil Mining | Arcelor Mittal | Areva | Barrick | BG Group | BHP Billiton | BP | Chevron Corporation | ConocoPhilips | DeBeers | Eni | ExxonMobil | Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold | GDF SUEZ | Goldcorp | Gold Fields | Hess Corporation | Lihir Gold | Katanga Mining Limited | Lonmin | Marathon | Mitsubishi Materials | MMG | Newmont | Nippon Mining & Metals | Noble Energy | Norsk Hydro | Oxus Gold | OZ Minerals | Pemex | Petrobras | Qatar Petroleum | Repsol YPF | Rio Tinto | RWE | Santos | Shell | Statoil | Sumitomo Metal Mining | Talisman Energy | Teck | Total | Vale | Woodside | Xstrata [5]

Supporting Civil Society Organisations

Financing Institutions

Funding

Canada's support includes a contribution of $750,000 to the EITI Multi-Donor Trust Fund, as well as $100,000 in annual, ongoing funding.


Notes

  1. ↑ Michael Hopkins, 2007 Corporate social responsibility and international development: is business the solution? Earthscan, Bath. Accessed 04/08/10
  2. ↑ EITI, Supporters Industry Associations Accessed 04/08/10
  3. ↑ EITI, About Secretariat Accessed 04/08/10
  4. ↑ EITI, Supporters Organisations Accessed 04/08/10
  5. ↑ EITI, Supporters Companies Accessed 04/08/10
  6. ↑ EITI, Supporters Civil Society Accessed 04/08/10
  7. ↑ EITI, Supporters Organisations Accessed 04/08/10
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