PNG set to meet EITI standard
As Papua New Guinea prepares to be validated in 2018 as an Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) compliant country, a successful conclusion of a pre-validation workshop brings the country a step closer for this assessment.
The workshop which saw participation from PNGEITI multi stakeholder group (MSG) was conducted by the regional director for East Asia and Pacific from EITI International Secretariat based in Oslo, Norway.
PNGEITI head of national secretariat Lucas Alkan, said during the workshop the country will be validated against the EITI global best practice standards on transparency and accountability of revenue from its mining, oil and gas industry.
“Drawing on this assessment, the EITI Board will make an assessment of overall compliance with all requirements in the EITI Standard.
“Where validation verifies that the government has made satisfactory progress on all of the requirements, the EITI board will designate PNG as EITI compliant, thus granting full membership status to the EITI.
“It is important that we hold this workshop in order to prepare ourselves for validation that will commence in early April, 2018,” Alkan said.
He said since government signed and made a commitment to implement the EITI standard in 2013, the EITI international board scheduled PNG to be validation for the possibility of becoming a fully compliant country by April 2018.
“Becoming EITI compliant is good for PNG because it raises the country’s credibility as an investment destination, raises credit rating, positive impact on our corruption perception index at global level.
Domestically, this demonstrates that the government is serious about addressing transparency and accountability in its management and distribution of millions of Kina generated from its mineral wealth,” he added.
The validation process will include an independent examiner to conduct detailed assessment on the Government’s implementation of the international requirements that are aimed at strengthening the mechanisms that allow for transparency and accountability of revenue collection and allocation from the two sectors.
“The independent validator will look at the meaningful implementation of the EITI concept by scrutinising the recommendation of the country reports, annual activity reports, implementation of annual work plans and the action by the Government to address challenges and issues as recommended in the EITI Reports that have been published to ascertain progress.
SOURCE: POST COURIER/PACNEWS
The workshop which saw participation from PNGEITI multi stakeholder group (MSG) was conducted by the regional director for East Asia and Pacific from EITI International Secretariat based in Oslo, Norway.
PNGEITI head of national secretariat Lucas Alkan, said during the workshop the country will be validated against the EITI global best practice standards on transparency and accountability of revenue from its mining, oil and gas industry.
“Drawing on this assessment, the EITI Board will make an assessment of overall compliance with all requirements in the EITI Standard.
“Where validation verifies that the government has made satisfactory progress on all of the requirements, the EITI board will designate PNG as EITI compliant, thus granting full membership status to the EITI.
“It is important that we hold this workshop in order to prepare ourselves for validation that will commence in early April, 2018,” Alkan said.
He said since government signed and made a commitment to implement the EITI standard in 2013, the EITI international board scheduled PNG to be validation for the possibility of becoming a fully compliant country by April 2018.
“Becoming EITI compliant is good for PNG because it raises the country’s credibility as an investment destination, raises credit rating, positive impact on our corruption perception index at global level.
Domestically, this demonstrates that the government is serious about addressing transparency and accountability in its management and distribution of millions of Kina generated from its mineral wealth,” he added.
The validation process will include an independent examiner to conduct detailed assessment on the Government’s implementation of the international requirements that are aimed at strengthening the mechanisms that allow for transparency and accountability of revenue collection and allocation from the two sectors.
“The independent validator will look at the meaningful implementation of the EITI concept by scrutinising the recommendation of the country reports, annual activity reports, implementation of annual work plans and the action by the Government to address challenges and issues as recommended in the EITI Reports that have been published to ascertain progress.
SOURCE: POST COURIER/PACNEWS
Post a Comment