Malawi on track with extractive industry standards

LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-Malawi has passed the requirements for making meaningful progress in implementing the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative EITI Standards, it has learnt.

This follows EITI board resolutions made. This is the first time for Malawi to pass the test.

The board has however given Malawi 18 months ultimatum until August 27, 2020 to fulfill requirements relating to extractive industry transparency failure which it will be suspended.

In a  statement  released on Wednesday and made available to The Maravi Post ,  Malawi needs to carry out corrective actions regarding requirements relating to industry engagements, like  work plan ,license register, data comprehensiveness , and quality  distribution of revenues , mandatory social expenditures , and outcomes and impact of implementation , Expenditures  and economic contribution within the months.

“Failure to achieve meaningful progress with considerable improvements across several individual requirements in the second Validation will result in suspension in accordance with the EITI Standard.” said the statement.

The board has commended the Government of Malawi and the multi-stakeholder group for their efforts to enhance transparency in the management of its extractive industries.

“In taking this decision, the Board welcomed Malawi’s efforts to go beyond the requirements of the EITI Standard in disclosing extractives production data, providing an effective diagnostic of inconsistencies across various sources, The Board encouraged the government to continue working on systematic disclosures of EITI data and efforts to ensure beneficial ownership transparency as a means of strengthening effective government oversight of the extractive industries “ reads the statement

It says despite the modest size of its extractive industries, Malawi has successfully established a platform for multi-stakeholder dialogue on extractives governance to drive improvements in transparency and accountability.

The Board has however encouraged additional efforts to ensure that published extractives information is complete and reliable in order to further build trust and accountability.

The board has also asked government for transparency in revenue flows in the petroleum sector as well as companies’ social expenditures in the mining companies.

But Malawi s Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (MWEITI) Coordinator, Gorge Harawa has said it is exciting that Malawi has passed the test.

Harawa observed that the development  is a milestone is in as far as Extractive Industries is concerned as many countries fail to pass the first validation test on EITI.

“Government commitment to sign-up processes for transparency in extractive industry that was steered by the Revenue Policy Division of the Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and Development (MoF), could be attributed to the passing of the EITI,” said Harawa

Harawa said government is ready to adhere to the recommendations made by the board.

However, Kosamu Munthari Citizens for Justice  (CFJ)’ Executive Director  whose organization has been  key driver in advocating for EITI implementation told The Daily Times on Thursday that although this is good news for the country, government should make sure  that there is financial sustainability in the management of the extractive industries.

“We feel there is still a lot to be done in terms of giving licenses to international mining companies for Malawi to achieve full fill requirements relating to extractive industry transparency.”Kosamu said

Malawi was admitted as an EITI candidate country in October 2015. it has since produced two annual reports  from 2014 to 2015  which were  published in June 2017 and the second covers fiscal year  of 2015-2016 and was published in June 2018 .