Ukraine is one of the leading countries in Eurasia in extractive sector transparency

Ukraine has made significant progress in the implementation of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and has become one of the extractive sector transparency leaders in the Eurasian region. This conclusion was made by independent international experts, which checked Ukraine on compliance with the standards of transparency in extractive industries and measured our accomplishments during the period of one year, starting from July 1, 2017. Validation results were announced at the 40th EITI Board meeting that took place in Berlin in late June.

Ukraine has made significant progress in the implementation of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and has become one of the extractive sector transparency leaders in the Eurasian region. This conclusion was made by independent international experts, which checked Ukraine on compliance with the standards of transparency in extractive industries and measured our accomplishments during the period of one year, starting from July 1, 2017. Validation results were announced at the 40th EITI Board meeting that took place in Berlin in late June.

The conclusion of “significant progress” in the 100-page report prepared by international auditors means that Ukraine entered the Initiative with almost 15 years of history and more than fifty actual member states. In addition to it, it means that a new status will contribute to boosting Ukraine’s world ratings and attracting new investments into the national economy. And, most importantly, it proves: Ukraine is able to implement the reforms.

In adopting the decision, the EITI leadership stressed that Ukraine had succeeded “in strengthening the management of the extractive industry by providing timely and publicly available information on extractive industry revenues and by creating a platform for public debates”.

Oleksiy Orlovsky, Democratic Practice Program Initiative Director of the International Renaissance Foundation, Board member of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), called this assessment “a fair recognition of the role of civil society in the implementation of reforms in the country”.

 “The reform in the extractive industries began 10 years ago, when the Foundation launched an ambitious initiative: to make the activities of one of the most corrupt sectors of the economy open”, said Oleksiy Orlovsky. “Since then, civil society has not only pushed the state to join the International Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, but also to take quite specific anti-corruption actions, in particular: introduction of a beneficiary right, opening information on the issuance of licenses, conducting reconciliations on company payments and proceeds coming to budgets of different levels from extractive companies, etc.”

Natalia Boyko, Deputy Minister of Energy and Coal Industry of Ukraine for European Integration said: “:The progress we have made is inspiring, however, we have to move on, especially taking into consideration that Ukraine is already disclosing a number of data bases online. It is extremely important to continue to receive support of international partners to disclose all data in the extractive industries electronically, so that they can be used by all stakeholders to better understand and manage the extractive sector of Ukraine”.

While Ukraine got the highest scores to rate its “civil society engagement”, “public debates”, “beneficiary owners”, the participation of the government and state-owned extractive companies in the implementation of the Initiative still needs to be improved.

Oliana Valigura, Regional Manager for Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia of the EITI International Secretariat, said: “Despite the impressive results of Ukraine in disclosing large volumes of data on extractive industry revenues, there still remain certain gaps to be filled by the government and the Multilateral Stakeholder Group to improve the process. These gaps concern, in particular, state-owned enterprises and settlements between state-owned enterprises and the government, guarantees and loans provided by the government to state-owned enterprises as well as certain issues pertaining to the data quality”.

Next step in the reform of extractive industries should be the adoption of a new law. For two years, the expert community has been trying to persuade the parliament to adopt the draft law No. 6229 “On Ensuring the Transparency of Extractive Industries” to extend the transparency requirements to the entire extractive sector and to strengthen law enforcement. It should be noted that on July 3, MPs sent the draft law for a second reading. Hence, its adoption is postpones at least till autumn.

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