The human rights body, GHRA has recommended to the government that a tripartite meeting be held here soon to move the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) along.
Following its attendance at an EITI regional meeting in Peru, the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) said that it is even more convinced that there will be positive benefits for Guyana if it acceded to the initiative.
According to its website, EITI is a global Standard to promote open and accountable management of natural resources
In a statement, GHRA said that should Guyana adopt the EITI there were several benefits that can be had:
More efficient revenue collection
Brings together all significant actors within the sector
Enables more equitable re-distribution of revenues from extractive industries
Encourages national dialogue on environmental priorities and the broader extractive sector
Membership of the MSG provides opportunities for youth advocacy on environmental issues
Enhances country status within multi-lateral funding agencies and in the eyes of investors.
GHRA contended that the tripartite mechanism comprising government, industry and civil society at the heart of the EITI process should be of particular interest to Guyana since governance arrangements here “in general encourage over-dependence on inherited practices, personal experience, lifeless statutory bodies, ‘celebrity’ activists and ethnic polarization, rather than robust and efficient processes and institutions.”
On the other hand, GHRA said that under the EITI Multi-Stakeholder Group (MSG) tripartite requirement, each sector (government, extractive sector, civil society) selects its own representatives and decision-making is “rooted in equality of status”.
Moreover, GHRA said that the EITI harmonizes with the dominant anti-corruption platform of the new Coalition Government.
The GHRA said it understands that the previous government had sent signals to the EITI over a period of some two years indicating an interest in formally seeking candidate status in the EITI. However, it said that no formal steps have yet been taken and noted that transition from candidate to fully compliant member requires that the country produce a Report on the financial flows taking place within the mining sector covering revenue from companies and the use of those revenues by Government. This Report must be done by an independently appointed auditor as part of an EITI validation process.
The GHRA said that this process normally takes a minimum of three years to complete.
Acceding to the EITI was first put to the Guyana Government in 2009 when it signed a historic forest protection agreement with the Kingdom of Norway.
Under the agreement, the Guyana Government had to show evidence of its decision to enter a formal dialogue with EITI or an alternative mechanism agreed by Guyana and Norway to further the same aim as EITI. Guyana’s progress has been slow and it has cost the country money. For slower than anticipated progress in moving to join the EITI, there was a reduction of 6.5% in year three payments under the Norway deal amounting to US$3.04 million.
Guyana was then required to continue with the process to apply to join the EITI.
“By the end of November 2014, the inception report from the EITI Scoping Study will be published, and Guyana will be listed as an “interested country” on the EITI Website.
These are milestones on the way to Guyana’s strong commitment to applying for EITI candidacy by June 2015,” Norway had said in November, 2014.
