Azerbaijan, Baku / corr. Trend I.Khalilova / Shahmar Movsumov, the Executive Director of the State Oil Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan and also the Head of the EITI State Commission, said on 30 April that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) held in Washington the presentation of the EITI application in Azerbaijan. "During the preparation to the presentation, the State Oil Fund closely co-operated with the Taxes Ministry and other relevant State bodies to reveal the destiny of EITI and potential unconformities in its application. As a result, no unconformities were discovered. Azerbaijan is an active participant in EITI application and all international organization recognize Azerbaijan as a leader in this direction," Movsumov said.
The statement made by the NGO Coalition functioning within EITI regarding fifth EITI report on the first half year of 2006 speaks of overpricing of the investment allocations on the oil and gas contracts. Movsumov consider as natural the increases in such large-scale investment projects.
"It deals with the investments in amount of more than $10 bln envisaged for a decade. Therefore, it is impossible to make exact assessment and increasing investments is a normal process. However, there is a mechanism controlling on the expenses during confirmation of the annual budget of AIOC. During this process, the members of the Government, including State Oil Company of Azerbaijan, BP (operator of AIOC) and contractors implement a serious inspection on the expenses. Therefore, groundless increases are impossible," Movsumov said.
The statement of the Coalition says that while concluding a contract on Azeri-Chirag-Guneshly it had been stated that the gross expenses will not exceed $8 bln, but they have already exceeded $14 bln.
