APA Freetown (Sierra Leone): The global watchdog for transparency in the extractive industry (EITI) will set new standards to be discussed and agreed at its sixth global conference in Australia (23 – 24 May) to which Sierra Leonean President Ernest Bai Koroma has been invited.
Sierra Leone is going to the conference suspended because it failed, for the second time, to meet its benchmarks in disclosing facts and figures of mining companies and their activities – the core of the initiative.
The EITI board resolved on 26th February that the country’s performance in attaining those standards for 2011 and 2012 was unsatisfactory.
The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) said in a release that the new standards would ensure transparency in even more areas of the management of natural resources.
“When implemented, it will give media and citizens more access to ‘follow the money’ from a country’s natural resources in the ground all the way into government budgets,” the release said.
President Ernest Bai Koroma is one of only two African presidents that have been invited to the conference. The other is Idriss Deby of Chad, whose last report was in 2009 with a draft report expected early this year.
The coordinator of National Advocacy Coalition on the Extractive, Cecilia Mattia, said about 27 exploration companies were yet to comply with regulations in the industry.
The Mines and Mineral Resources ministry is yet to explain why it had to upload on its online repository names of exploration companies whose threshold exceeded US$4,000, yet had failed to disclose those names to the Multi Stakeholders Group, she said.
Meanwhile, the suspension would be lifted if the board agreed the remedial actions were satisfactorily completed.
According to EITI regulations on its website, the Board will consider delisting if suspension is in effect beyond 25 February 2014.
Completing the remedial actions could be challenging if swift action is not taken in coming weeks, including ensuring all material payments and revenues are covered, the website said.