 In the past few years organizations such as Publish What You Pay (www.publishwhatyoupay.org), the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (www.eitransparency.org) and Revenue Watch have all been working towards increasing transparency in regards to extractive industries payments to national governments. In countries where public transparency and parliamentary oversight are weak, such large flow of funds are attractive potential source of funds to corrupt senior officials. Knowing both what companies pay and what governments receive is a critical first step to holding governments to account for such revenues.
At GOPAC’s 2 nd Global Conference, GOPAC members acknowledged that in many jurisdictions the large amount of money received by governments from natural resources royalties does not find its way into the public finances. GOPAC undertook as a fist step to seek to ensure that government financial accounting standards require that all such revenues be documented and reported as part of annual financial reports of government. This was seen as a useful complement to the business oriented Publish What You Pay and the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.
LINKS
Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (English Only)
http://www.eitransparency.org/
IMF Guide to Resource Revenue Transparency
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/grrt/eng/060705.htm
Publish What You Pay
http://www.publishwhatyoupay.org/english/
Revenue Watch (English Only)
http://www.revenuewatch.org/about/
Transparency International: Promoting Revenue Transparency Project (English Only) http://transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/
promoting_revenue_transparency
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