Meeting with Movsumov Attended by a Third of NGO Coalition

The situation in the NGO Coalition for Increasing Transparency in Extractive Industries was discussed at the head of the government commission on the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI), Director of the State Oil Fund Shahmar Movsumov yesterday.

As Turan was told by the coordinator of the Coalition Gubad Ibadoglu, the meeting was attended by less than one third of the nearly 160 members of the Coalition. These were mostly pro-government NGOs.

“Even with the employees of the Oil Fund and other unauthorized persons not related to the Coalition, it was attended by no more than 50 people,” Ibadoglu said.

Ibadoglu himself attended as a representative of the international EITI Board. Earlier, the Coalition Council opposed such a meeting, describing it as a government intervention.

Movsumov said the government does not want to interfere in the affairs of the Coalition, and only seeks to resolve the situation surrounding the dispute over representation in the multilateral group on EITI (it involves representatives of civil society, government and mining companies).

“In fact, there is no problem. The Coalition Council by a majority of votes chose 3 main and 3 alternate members of the multilateral group. It was voted by 6 of 11 members. The remaining minority of five members defending the government's position is against this and their position is contrary to the charter of the Coalition,” Ibadoglu said.

According to him, the meeting proposed to expand the Coalition by joining other NGOs. However, this is contrary to the memorandum signed by the Coalition, the government and the companies in 2014.

Movsumov said if the Coalition is unable to agree on the composition of the multilateral group, all members of the Coalition will be invited to the meeting, but it is also contrary to the memorandum.

According to Ibadoglu, the question has remained open and the Coalition Council in the near future will discuss the situation and make a decision. He sees no reason to contest the election of the members of the multilateral group from civil society.

In turn, Alimammad Nuriyev member of the NGO Coalition Council supported the idea of ​​ Shahmar Movsumov to resolve the dispute regarding NGO representation in multilateral groups.

Nuriyev said that the multi-lateral group should be submitted to a wide range of NGOs, not only representatives of "one group". He claims that the group represented by Gubad Ibadoglu and Ogtay Gyulalyev  is trying to obtain the  "excluding Azerbaijan from the EITI."

Nuriyev said Movsumov find right the proposal by Movsumov, that if the parties fail to agree on the members of the multilateral group of NGOs, its meeting will be open to all members of the coalition.

According to him,  in the coalition actually function 70 NGOs and 50 of them participated on the eve  in the meeting with Movsumov.

The SOFAZ report on the meeting states that the meeting was attended by representatives of 50 NGOs.

As noted in the press release, the meeting was held to bring together representatives of various interest groups.

“The main purpose of the meeting is the creation of conditions for open dialogue, the organization of a platform for the discussion of differences on the representation in the multilateral group and general management,” the report says. The results of the discussion are not reported.    -06B-