by Francis Quamina Farrier

THE Guyana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (GYEITI) which was established earlier this year will soon be accepted as another member of the Global EITI Family of Nations, if all continues to go as planned.

This longed-for mechanism for better governance in Guyana is now much closer to

realisation. That was announced by the recently appointed National Coordinator of the GYEITI, Dr Rudy R. Jadoopat. The Guyanese-born economist and former Youth Trade Unionist, brings to the job, over three decades of international experience.

So what is the Guyana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (GYEITI) all about? The short answer is that it is a coalition of governments, companies, investors, civil society members and partner organisations, working together to ensure a much greater degree of transparency, and with it, a citizenry capable of accessing information regarding business transactions conducted by their governments, investors and non-governmental organisations. In a nutshell, EITI empowers citizens in member countries to be able to access the kind of information, which in the past, was held as top secret, and to access such information, citizens can hold their political representatives and others accountable for business which will impact the lives of ordinary folk.

During the past two weeks, GYEITI has held five outreach workshops; at Corriverton, Bartica, Linden, Charity and Georgetown, where the public was addressed by representatives from EITI, government, civil society members and  investors, including ExxonMobil. During those workshops, a wide variety of questions were entertained from the floor and responses given, generally to the satisfaction of the gathering.

At Corriverton, the principal questions from the floor were about the ExxonMobil Oil and Gas exploration. At Bartica, the principal questions were linked to the gold-mining industry, and at Linden, to the bauxite industry. Questions from the floor at the outreach workshop at Charity, were also about oil-and-gas exploration and the gold-mining industry.

The published Policy Forum of GYEITI states that its main objectives are ensuring corporate social responsibility; encouraging the sharing of information; revealing beneficial ownership and promoting revenue transparency.

EITI being in Guyana is not unique, since it has already been established in over 50 countries around the world, and the number is growing. With Guyana’s application soon to be officially accepted, our country will be elevated to a country in which corruption will dwindle, as is the case in other EITI member countries. Some of the EITI member countries are Nigeria, Norway, Sierra Leone, Suriname, Liberia, the United Kingdom, Peru, Colombia, Togo, The Dominican Republic, Ghana, Honduras, Senegal, Zambia, Germany, the United States of America and Trinidad and Tobago.

The fifth and final of this first series of outreach workshops, was held at the Marian Academy in Georgetown. The principal speaker was Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman, who referred to himself as “the first among equals” in the partnership of Government, Civil Society and Industry, in bringing more Transparency to governance in Guyana, as is unfolding in over 50 other democratic countries around the world.

As was the case at the other four GYEITI outreach workshops, there was a wide range of questions from the floor at this fifth workshop in Georgetown, one being whether there will be similar outreach workshops in some of the far-flung communities, such as Mabaruma, Mahdia and Lethem. That was answered in the affirmative.

Among those who addressed one or more of the five workshops, were National Coordinator, GYEITI Secretariat, Dr. Rudy R. Jadoopat, Deputy Coordinator GYEITI Secretariat, Diane Barker, Guyana Country Representative The Carter Center, Jason Calder, Deputy Director, Office of the Budget, Ministry of Finance, Gillian Pollard, MSG Member, Extractive Industry, Patrick Harding, MSG Member, Civil Society, Najuma Nelson, MSG Member, Civil Society, Gomin Comacho and Exon Mobil Country Manager, Rod Henson.