A six-member delegation will represent T&T at the Sixth Global Conference of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) in Sydney, Australia from May 22-24.Richard Oliver, Deputy Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Energy and Energy Affairs, and Victor Hart, chair of the local EITI Steering Committee, will lead the delegation. Other members are Enid Donawa, Senior Energy Analyst; Keisha Garcia, TTEITI Steering Committee member; Mark Regis, Head–TTEITI; and Gisela Granado, Policy Analyst– TTEITI.
More than 1,000 delegates from 96 countries are expected to attend. The biennial conference attracts civil society organisations, large and small extractive industry companies, and institutional investors.A highlight of this conference is the launch of a new standard to govern future EITI implementation. It will encourage the production of more relevant, reliable and usable financial information on the extractive industries. It will also help to bring aboutwider reforms to the reporting of sources for and expenditure from the public purse.
The TTEITI team will host a booth at the conference's National Expo, which will highlight T&T's EITI implementation process against the backdrop of the country's internationally recognised model of natural gas exploitation.The EITI is a global standard for ensuring transparency of payments from natural resources. It provides transparency and accountability in the extractive sectors–oil, gas and mining–through the annual publication of payments made by companies to governments, which are independently audited and reconciled with governments' declared receipts.Established in 2003, the EITI is currently being implemented by a coalition of governments, companies and civil society organisations in 37 of the 53 countries around the world considered rich in natural resources.
