TRANSPARENCY IN RESOURCES

The Mozambican government on Monday reiterated its commitment to transparency in the management of mineral resources, through the popularisation and national ownership of the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI). To this end, according to the National Director of Geology and Mines, Elias Xavier Daudi, it is crucial to publicise good quality information about EITI, its nature and its goals, and how it is being implemented in Mozambique. He was speaking at the official launch of the project to strengthen the capacity of civil society organisations about EITI, and particularly its communication component.

“We hope that Mozambican citizens will have access to more good quality information and more spaces for debate and collective learning about EITI, so that they may take ownership of it and transform it into their banner”, said Daudi, “marking the collective commitment to transparent management of our natural resources, as we move towards sustainable and inclusive development”.

He stressed that, in granting greater visibility and public knowledge to EITI, the project intends to contribute to national ownership of the mechanism, from a perspective of freeing it from the image of an outside body, and “fully integrating it into the institutional structure of the state”.

The official take-off of this project coincided with publication of the first educational brochure and first information bulletin about EITI.EITI describes itself as “the global standard to promote the open and accountable management of oil, gas and mineral resources”, which “seeks to address the key governance issues of the oil, gas and mining sectors”.EITI requires governments and companies to disclose information on oil, gas and mining revenues. The key disclosures are how much money companies in the extractive industry claim to pay to governments, and how much the governments say they receive. Any discrepancies must be explained. Each EITI implementing country must publish to an annual report disclosing information on such matters as contracts and licenses, production, and revenue collection and allocation.Mozambique is one of 53 EITI implementing countries, and has been declared EITI-compliant since 2012.