– report submitted one month ahead of deadline

GUYANA’s suspension from the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) has been lifted following the publication of the 2020 EITI Report.

The Government of Guyana, in a statement on Tuesday, said that the report was published on June 30, 3023, within five months of the six-month deadline.

“The Government remains confident that all systems will remain in place to ensure that Guyana is not placed in a similar position in the future,” the statement said.

Meanwhile, EITI in its board decision said that “in accordance with the EITI Standard, it was agreed that the suspension would be lifted if the EITI Board is satisfied that the outstanding EITI Report was published within six months of the deadline.”

Thus, the condition for lifting the suspension has been met.

Back in February, President Dr Irfaan Ali had told the nation that several circumstances led to the delay of the submission and Guyana, along with several other countries, have requested an extension.

“Notwithstanding the fact that an extension was given by EITI Secretariat to May this year to have that report completed, we still should have been in a position to have that report submitted,” he stressed.

Doing so, he lamented, was stalled by members of the Multi-Stakeholder Group (MSG) who are part of the reporting process.

“For four months,” President Ali bemoaned, “the Multi-Stakeholder Group, MSG, had the ToR [Terms of Reference] for this administrator on pause.

“They did not approve the ToR for the administrator. This begs the question whether there are persons in that group with ulterior motives. Now, after four months, the ToR has been agreed upon with two persons abstaining. This is unacceptable; to put a country’s reporting framework at stake, and to try and damage the government’s credibility is not being a good citizen.”

Even though there were a number of issues which prevented the data-collection process for the report, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the flooding of Guyana’s forests and hinterland, the President posited that the suspension could have been avoided as an independent administrator was hired to complete the report that is now the subject of the suspension.

President Ali further reassured Guyanese that persons who were responsible for the delay will be held accountable.

“One or two persons cannot drag an entire country and its credibility,” he said.

“We will spare no effort in advancing transparency and accountability,” Dr Ali also maintained, going as far as to stress that Guyana is the first country to legislate mandatory jail sentence for non-disclosures associated with the oil and gas sector.

The EITI is a multi-stakeholder group, which comprises governments, companies and civil societies who work collectively to maintain high standards in the extractive industries.

EITI countries disclose information along the extractive industry value chain, which includes how extraction rights are awarded to how revenues are channelled through government and how the public benefits.

More than 50 countries are a part of the EITI.