MONROVIA – Liberia has made a significant leap obtaining an overall moderate score of 75 points following a validation of performance by the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) carried out under the organization’s revised standard.
In a communication to the President of Liberia, Dr. George Manneh Weah, from the Chairman of the Board, Rt. Hon. Hellen Clark, the EITI said it was pleased to inform the Liberian leader of the results of Liberia’s Validation which provides an opportunity to assess performance and good practice in the extractive sector and to identify opportunities to strengthen the impact of the EITI across all of its 56 implementing countries.
According to Hon. Clark, the EITI Board agreed on June 17, 2022 that Liberia had achieved a moderate overall score of 75 points in implementing the 2019 EITI standard.
The result, according to the Board Chairperson, reflects the high-level commitment and dedication of the Liberian Government, key office holders, and multi-stakeholder group members to harness the EITI as a platform to advance reform, inform public debate and improve access to information on the mining, oil and gas, forestry and agriculture sectors.
“The EITI Board commends your government for achieving a high score of 81.5 points on outcomes and impact,” the communication apprises President Weah. “A moderate score of 75 points was achieved on stakeholders’ engagement but a fairly low score of 69.5 points on transparency.”
The Board said further that it was clear from the validation that steps have been taken to rebuild the EITI process following the resolution of governance issues within the National Secretariat in 2018/2019, and that effort to use the EITI as a platform to bring about reform and debate in the extractive sector have subsequently resumed.
The EITI communication to President Weah further asserted that there are opportunities to build further on these efforts made by improving transparency around the award of extractive rights, the beneficial ownership of companies, contracts and the operations of the national oil company, while ensuring that EITI objectives are aligned with national priorities for the extractive industries.
According the letter, “the Board has determined that Liberia will have until the next validation commencing on 1 April 2024 to carry out 14 corrective actions and to consider the strategic recommendations from this validation.”
The EITI Board Chairperson assured President Weah that “the International EITI Secretariat stands ready to support you and the multi-stakeholder group in your efforts to take forward implementation of the EITI standard,” expressing the hope that recommendations from the validation “are helpful in directing these efforts”.
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