Oil-Rich Nigerian Province Convenes Companies, Citizen Leaders and Government Officials for Landmark Transparency Review
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
| CONTACTS: Dauda Garuba, +234 805 382-7953, dgaruba@revenuewatch.org (Nigeria) Jed Miller, +1 917 257-0670, jmiller@revenuewatch.org (US) | Français |
YENAGOA, NIGERIA—Leaders from the international oil industry and the regional government of Bayelsa State gathered with citizen groups today to pioneer a more transparent and collaborative oversight process for oil revenues in the strife-torn Niger Delta.
Governor Timipre Sylva hosted the inaugural meeting of the Bayelsa Expenditure and Income Transparency Initiative (BEITI) "multi-stakeholder group," a partnership of industry, government and civil society leaders charged with reviewing state income from all sources and monitoring Bayelsa's public expenditures.
"The business of governance is too important to be left to politicians and government officials alone," said Governor Sylva, adding that the new initiative "will not only establish Bayelsa State as the most transparent state in Nigeria, but it will also go a long way to improving oil revenue use, reducing conflict and poverty, as well as delivering economic growth."
Bayelsa's progress establishing collaborative oversight of its oil revenues puts this oil-rich region at the forefront of the transparency and disclosure movement among resource-producing countries. While there are more than two dozen countries now in the worldwide Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), that initiative operates primarily at the federal level in participating countries.
"Regional and sub-national governments face severe challenges managing oil wealth even in times of plenty," said Julie McCarthy, deputy director of the Revenue Watch Institute, which supported the Bayelsa government in the creation of the BEITI, "but with the global financial crisis wreaking havoc on commodity prices, Bayelsa's example of transparency and public dialogue is all the more needed to show regional governments how to keep development on course during troubled times."
Members of the multi-stakeholder group, which will govern the BEITI, include representatives from the Shell Petroleum, Statoil Hydro of Norway and Agip Oil, officials from the Bayelsa State assembly and Bayelsa's offices of due process and e-governance, finance, health, and justice, among other ministries, along with leaders from civil society groups including Development Initiators, Environmental Rights Action and Pro-Natura International.
The Revenue Watch Institute looks forward to participating as this group begins the hard work of establishing an enduring model for open and effective revenue management in the Niger Delta.
Revenue Watch congratulates all the members of the BEITI multi-stakeholder group for today's milestone and affirms its commitment to continued technical support for the BEITI.
CONTACTS:
Dauda Garuba, +234 805 382-7953, dgaruba@revenuewatch.org (Nigeria)
Jed Miller, +1 917 257-0670, jmiller@revenuewatch.org (US)
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