PWYP calls for transparency in extractive industry

Accra, Oct. 7, GNA – Members of Publish What You Pay (PWYP) has called on the Government and the mining companies to move beyond the demands of the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) of revenue disclosures to engage in contract disclosures.

PWYP argued that seven years of implementation of EITI in Ghana showed that its activities were one-sided and only telling the citizens about how much revenue mining companies paid to the Government without disclosing the terms of mining contracts entered into by government and the mining entities.

PWYP is a global network of civil society organisations campaigning for transparency and accountability in the oil, gas, and mining industries,

EITI is a coalition of governments, companies and civil society groups, requiring companies to publish what they pay and for governments to disclose what they receive to ensure a global standard for transparency in oil, gas and mining as an effort to make natural resources beneficial to all and sundry.

This in-turn enables the citizenry to question their governments on how they applied the revenues.

Addressing a press conference in Accra on Thursday, Dr Steve Manteaw, Chairman of African Steering Committee of PWYP Africa said if EITI actually addressed issues of transparency in the mining sector, then it is time for governments and managements of mining companies to disclose their contract terms.

The press conference followed a meeting of PWYP executives drawn from Ghana, Tanzania, Niger, Chad, Guinea and the Democratic Republic of Congo to assess how EITI had been helpful to the citizenry in the extraction of natural resources from countries on the continent.

Dr Manteaw said the focus of EITI must not only be on one link of the industry but must include other important issues such as contracts, environmental and social costs and how they were compensated.

He pointed out that EITI, must lead policy reforms to ensure improvement in the governance of the mining sector.

Dr Manteaw said there were instances where governments had signed different contracts with the management of different mining companies resulting in speculations as to why government should give special treatment to some in terms of tax obligations.

He said PWYP would push forward the agenda at the forthcoming PWYP Conference in Jakarta- Indonesia to ensure that it is incorporated into the EITI concept for the benefit of all.

Madam Marinke van Riet, International Director of PWYP called for the strengthening of civil society efforts since that is the only way to ensure the success of EITI activities.