Maersk announces support for EITI

Maersk Oil announced on 4th May that it will support the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) as part of its transparency and anti corruption activities.

The EITI, established in 2002, is a global effort to promote revenue transparency at the national level through full public reporting of company payments and government revenues. It intends to strengthen governance through ensuring transparency of the revenues governments receive from the extractive industries.

Over 50 of the worlds largest oil, gas and mining companies already support the EITI. To become an EITI supporter, a company must declare their support publically and help to promote the initiative internationally and in the countries where they operate.

While the EITI does not require specific actions from supporting companies, it is an important declaration of their commitment to transparency.

“We have a zero-tolerance policy towards corruption and strive to develop good relations with stakeholders also in the countries in which we operate. Our support of the EITI confirms this approach,” Maersk Oil's Chief Financial Officer Kenny Murdoch said in the Maersk press release.

“We believe our support of the EITI will send a strong signal that we are an open company that conducts business in an equitable and upright manner,” Murdoch said.

11 countries have achieved Compliant status, and 24 others have Candidate status. Cameroon currently has Candidate status, but the country's Minister of Finance Essimi Menye said on Wednesday, 4th May, that they were committed to gaining full membership.

An EITI delegation visited Cameroon to encourage it to meet transparency requirements, especially in the mining and oil sectors, so that it can be considered for full membership at the EITI's next meeting in June.

The delegation, lead by EITI envoy Tim Bittinger asked Cameroon to do more extensive "publication of data on its extractive industries."

Menya said that Cameroon had already published three reports since joining the EITI in 2005, but acknowledged that there had been some discrepancies in them.

Transparency International ranked Cameroon 146 out of 178 countries in 2010 in its Corruption Perceptions Index, making it one of the most corrupt countries in the world.

Sources: EITI, Fox Business, Maersk Oil, Transparency International

For more information, please see the Menas ACCS website, here.