10 years of the Coalition of NGOs "Transparency in the extractive industries"

The NGO Coalition "Transparency in the extractive industries" marks its tenth anniversary. If in the beginning the members of the non-governmental association were 29 non-governmental organizations, now in its ranks there are 149 NGOs and 14 volunteers, said at the presentation the President of the Relief Fund for Market Economy Sabit Bagirov.

According to him, the opinion of the Coalition members in the international arena is accepted more than in Azerbaijan, but the format of relations between the parties allows promotion of understanding among all members of the Alliance “with creak”. So, they were able to agree the earlier "hindering" amendments to the memorandum of cooperation for the implementation of the Multilateral Group in Azerbaijan Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). The group consists of NGOs, officials from the government, representatives of the state oil company, the State Oil Fund and foreign companies involved in the agreement on the division of shares from the extraction of natural resources.

According to the founder of the Center for Economic Studies and coordinator of the Coalition Gubad Ibadoglu, the memorandum has several positive aspects. While before, the meetings of the multilateral group invited representatives of four NGOs, after the entry of the document into force any member of the Coalition may address its monitoring group and become a party to the debate. In addition, an agreement has been achieved with the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) on bringing to work (the wages are from non-governmental organizations) representatives of the Coalition in the secretariat of the Multilateral Group.

In addition, the Doctor of Economics recognized democratic principles of the structure, including the mandatory rotation of all posts. Still not all members of the Coalition are interested in reporting, but they should be, really. At the end of last year (December 10) the results of the investigation were published as Azerbaijan: Without a Face (Azerbaijan Anonymous), conducted by the international non-governmental organization Global Witness. There was shed light on little-known facts of activities of the state oil company SOCAR - this is a message to all that makes no sense to hide the information, because all the beneficiaries of transactions with hydrocarbons are registered abroad and are accountable to the tax authorities of the countries to promote projects of globalization, said Ibadoglu, .

According to him, little controlled and unaccounted income of individuals in a large scale in oil production may be directed to the creation and functioning of terrorist and other criminal organizations. So the transparency and accountability of all participants of the market is a basic requirement in the EITI, where Ibadoglu is a member of the Board.

According to members of the Coalition of NGOs, transparency in the extractive industries (especially in the production of hydrocarbons) of Azerbaijan is relevant only because 70% of the country's budget revenues are directly related to the export of oil and petroleum products. Azerbaijan for 10 years has been facing the problem of trust in the EITI, where it is a permanent member. - 17D-