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NGO Coalition Made Activity Programme for 2007 Public within EITI

Politics Materials 18 January 2007 20:21 (UTC +04:00)
NGO Coalition Made Activity Programme for 2007 Public within EITI

Today, on January 18, the NGO Coalition has presented the action program for 2007 within the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) The Council of the Coalition defined 5 key directions which envisage concentration of the future activities in order not to allow fragmentation , Trend reports with reference to Coordinator of the Coalition, Sabit Bagirov.

The first issue is to increase the transparency in the activities of the local and foreign oil companies. It is intended to hold the monitoring of the transition of the local companies to the international accounting standards, revenues and determination of the classification of local companies revenues, monitoring and analyses of the oil and gas production process, sale and consumption, involvement of revenues in EITI which are obtained from exploitation of other natural resources (except oil and gas), monitoring of environmental impact of the exploitation of the natural resources, companies using the local resources and protection of rights of inhabitants who reside near these companies.

The Council considers that it is already high time to expand the coverage of EITI and involve the revenues obtained from the exploitation of other natural resources in this process. The second priority direction is to hold the monitoring of the projects financed by the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) and analyses of their efficiency.

According to Mr. Bagirov, starting from 2006, SOFAZ has commenced financing some projects, and the Fund is expected to allot funds for new ones in 2007. Due to this, it is expedient to hold a monitoring over the two years, since the expenditures have remained behind the public control, said Mr. Bagirov.

SOFAZ has been involved in financing the projects on laying the water-pipe вЂ" Oghuz-Gabala Region вЂ" Baku City, reconstruction of the Samur-Absheron Irrigation SystemСЃ. The Fund also gives funds to improving the housing conditions of the refuges and IDPs, as well as carrying out transfers to the State Budget.

A monitoring of the funds put to be governed and sent to financing projects on 2006-2007. The SOFAZ Budget is expected to be held within the above-mentioned conception. In addition, an international conference is expected to be held. Moreover, within the issue, preparing proposals on appraising and reducing risks of probable oil return, improving the legislation on the efficient management with the returns, and increasing the transparency in the extractive industry are expected. Expanding the coalition cooperation with the public organizations has been chosen as the third issue of the activity. The fourth issue includes upleveling knowledge, institutional capabilities and fulfilling tasks posed to the coalition in the EITI Memorandum. The last issue envisages expanding international and regional cooperation.

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