Africa-Press – Angola. The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) considered, this Monday, in Oslo, Norway, that Angola’s accession, approved last Friday, will ensure “that crucial information about Angola’s extractive sector is made public”.
In a statement following Angola’s accession, the organization says that “reporting in accordance with the EITI Standard will help ensure that crucial information about Angola’s extractive sector is made public, including beneficial owners and contracts relating to extractive companies. , as well as the management of state-owned enterprises and sectoral revenues”.
“Disclosures required in the context of EITI implementation can help identify corruption risks, management deficiencies and areas of revenue loss and, ultimately, this information can support decision-making and the formulation of improvements and promote debate. public in Angola”, adds the statement from the organization quoted by Lusa.
Angola saw its candidacy approved on Friday, after a process that took three years, and which closes a cycle for the organization itself, since it was the Angolan oil sector that motivated the creation of this entity based in Oslo, in Norway.
“In 2003, opacity in Angola’s oil sector led to the formation of the IETI, when calls from civil society advocates to address corruption issues attracted considerable attention”, providing for the creation of a “global reporting standard”, recalls the organization, adding that “corruption risks and governance challenges have persisted in Angola over the years, and there have been repeated calls for the country to implement the IETI Standard”, something that is only now happening.
Angola joins the IETI “at a critical juncture in relation to global extractive governance; the Covid-19 pandemic and recent volatility in oil prices have brought into focus the vulnerability of most extractive-dependent countries and increased calls to get involved.” in the energy transition”, adds the document.
Meeting Deadlines
On Friday, the Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Diamantino Azevedo, said that all the procedures required by the EITI for acceptance as a member had been fulfilled, with the Angolan Government’s declaration of intent being the first step.
Diamantino Azevedo underlined that Angola took on the challenge taking into account the principle of transparency and the fight against corruption, which governs the governance of the Angolan President, João Lourenço, and the need to change some aspects in the sector.
“And that’s how we did it, first, changing the governance model, and new governance models were approved, both for the mining sector and for the oil sector, which essentially stratify the activity of each body, clearly define which it is the activity of the Government, through the ministry of responsibility and the activity of regulatory agencies and the activity of both private and state companies”, he underlined.
The head of the Petroleum and Mineral Resources portfolio highlighted that, with this model, conflicts of interest that existed were eliminated, “in which, for example, national companies played different roles”.
“They played a business role, a regulatory role, a concessionaire role and all of this created some bottlenecks for our activity, on the one hand, in terms of transparency, ‘compliance’ (compliance), but also impeded the harmonious development of the oil activity as well as other resources. minerals”, he said.
The minister stressed that integration into the EITI will oblige the Government, foreign companies and civil society to overcome themselves, “bringing more transparency in the acts of governance and business activity, as well as in the activity of civil society as well”.
“This will also contribute to improving efficiency, transparency and enabling us to better monitor the use of revenues from the extractive industry”, he stressed.
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