The Mozambican government needs to spend at least a million US dollars a year to implement “perfectly” the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI), according to the EITI National Co-ordinator, Custodio Nguetane.
More than 90 per cent of the costs of implementing EITI have been financed by Mozambique’s international partners, led by the World Bank. The government’s participation in the funding has been tiny, at just three million meticais (about US$43,000, at current exchange rates) a year.
Nguetane provided these figures at a media conference here Monday, after a meeting between Prime Minister Carlos Agostinho do Rosario and the visiting chairperson of the EITI International board, Fredrik Reinfeldt, a former Swedish Prime Minister who became EITI Chairperson in December 2015.
“Implementation of the initiative is very expensive, particularly the component of publicity,” said Nguetane. “One of our basic elements is that our reports should be accessible to everybody, and particularly to the communities living in areas of mining activity. The component paid by the government is very small, and so greater government participation is required, despite the scarcity of resources.”
A further challenge is for Mozambique to maintain its status as an EITI-compliant country, a status which it has enjoyed since 2012. A re-assessment of Mozambique’s status is now due, and will be held in February.
Every country applying to join the EITI as a member is assessed to validate whether it can comply with the EITI Standard. Depending on the outcome of the initial Validation, the country should be re-assessed anywhere between three months and three years later. According to the EITI website, “this encourages continuous improvement and safeguards the integrity of the EITI”.
Nguetane was confident that the re-assessment will go in Mozambique’s favour and that its EITI-compliant status will be re-affirmed.
Source: Bernama
