The NEWS (Monrovia)
Doe S.K. Davies
4 December 2008
Monrovia — Finance Minister Augustine K. Nguafuan has divulged that as part of his ministry's commitment to promote transparency and accountability in the management of state resources, he will give public access to all government's financial inflows and outflows through the media.
He indicated given Liberians difficult experiences with the exploitation of their resources in the past, it was incumbent on both government and private sector to make sure that the Liberian people are confident they are getting the fair share from their natural resources.
Addressing participants at a one-day Technical Workshop organized by the Liberia Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (LEITI) at a local hotel, the Finance boss noted "the one major way this can be done is by letting everyone know the operations of logging, mining and oil companies, including taxes they paid to government and government's account and use of those tax revenues."
Asserting that every company has good reason to support the implementation of the LEITI process, Minister Nguafuan urged participants representing a cross-section of extractive industries and civil society stakeholders to maximize the opportunity of the workshop to deepen their understanding of the process, especially its reporting requirements and the benefit LEITI offers.
In realization of LEITI's mandate, the Finance Minister who is also chairperson of LEITI pointed out that President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has issued an appropriate proclamation obliging all relevant agencies of government and companies to fully comply with the reporting requirements of LEITI.
He further said a legislation to make LEITI a standing public agency is also being drafted and added, "these and other measures are demonstration of the resolve of this government to making sure that LEITI succeeds and that Liberia's natural resources duly benefit our people."
In brief remarks, Lands, Mines and Energy Minister Dr. Eugene Shannon who is also co-chair of the LEITI Steering Group, observed that the reporting of revenues from the extractive industries was to ensure that funds generated from the natural resources must trigger down to the entire population.
He noted that this would also ensure that revenues accrued from the natural resources are utilized in a sustainable way so that even after the depletion of these resources the livelihood of the people should be sustained perpetually.
The Chairman of the 'Publish what You Pay', a civil society coalition, Mr. Martin Kerkula expressed his organization's support and readiness to work along with LEITI for the achievement of its mandate.
Also speaking on behalf of the extractive industries, i.e. companies, the Chief Executive Officer of ArcelorMittal, Joseph Matthews pledged the full support of the industries to the initiatives of LEITI.
He stressed the need for government and the private sector to work together for the attainment of LEITI's goals.
Earlier, the head of LEITI Secretariat, Cllr. Ngbalee Warner welcomed participants and outlined the importance of the workshop.
He indicated that the workshop was in preparation of LEITI's first report of all payments made to the Government of Liberia by logging, mining and oil companies and the corresponding revenues government has received from them slated to be released in February 2009.
The LEITI Technical Workshop was facilitated by Crane, White and Associates, the Australian international auditing firm recruited by LEITI to prepare its first report.
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