By Michelle Bird – EMTV News, Port Moresby
The inaugural launch of the PNG Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative Report for the year 2013 took place yesterday at Parliament House with the Prime Minister and the Minister for Treasury both in attendance.
The report aims to improve governance in resource rich countries, such as Papua New Guinea, through the verification and full publication of company paymen’s and government revenue from oil, gas and mining.
The initiative works to build multi-stakeholder partnerships in PNG in order to increase the accountability of the government.
The report has already highlighted several information gaps and inconsistencies in book keeping and paymen’s made in the extractive industry.
The Mineral Resources Development Company (MRDC) could not provide data after 2009, which is of concern, given the huge amount of funds entrusted to them.
State Owned Enterprises have been undergoing reforms in recent years, however, the report points out that IPBC (now Kumul Consolidated Holdings Limited) has been described as having a “systemic lack of transparency.”
Currently PNG is only a candidate, but, if accepted as an EITI compliant country, it will go far to building a conducive environment and economy based on transparency and an increased accountability in the extractive industry.
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