Vietnam feasibility study - EITI

v.3 - THe eITI crITerIa
The EITI is considered as a minimum global standard for disclosing revenue data, in which transparency
and accountability are highly important. Moreover, the implementation of the EITI is very flexible so
that each country can implement the EITI in its own way depending on its own conditions. Some
countries require all the data of revenues, while others require the transparency of both contracts and
revenue data throughout company operation. For example, while Azerbaijan discloses its EITI report
in a comprehensive manner and Mongolia discloses its report with high detail, Ghana just focuses on
some un-renewable resources and the EITI program of Liberia does not only involved the extractive
industry but rather the forestry sector (RWI, 2008; EITI 3 , 2010).
At the EITI Conference held in London in 2005, the EITI implementing members proposed some
criteria for implementing the EITI and also encouraged members to better carry out the minimum
requirements. The following are some criteria (EITI 2 , 2009):
1. Regular publication of all material oil, gas, and mining payments by companies to governments
(“payments”) and all material revenues received by governments from oil, gas and mining
companies (“revenues”) to a wide audience in a publicly accessible, comprehensive, and
comprehensible manner.
2. Where such audits do not already exist, payments and revenues are the subject of a credible,
independent audit, applying international auditing standards.
3. Payments and revenues are reconciled by a credible, independent administrator, applying
international auditing standards and with publication of the administrator’s opinion
regarding that reconciliation, including discrepancies, should any be identified.
4. This approach is extended to all companies including state-owned enterprises.
5. Civil society is actively engaged as a participant in the design, monitoring, and evaluation of
this process and contributes toward public debate.
6. A public, financially sustainable work plan for all the above is developed by the host
government, with assistance from the international financial institutions where required,
including measurable targets, a timetable for implementation, and an assessment of
potential capacity constraints.
The results in the framework of the 5 th EITI Global Conference held in Paris, France, in March 2011 indicate
that the EITI criteria should be extended and improved in the next years, during which the EITI will not
just focus on enhancing transparency but also on governance in the extractive industry. Moreover, the
scope of the EITI program could be possibly extended to the whole value chain in the extractive industry,
rather than just focusing on the revenue transparency as regulated at the current time.
v.4 - BenefITs Of THe eITI ImPlemenTaTIOn
So why does the EITI attract many countries around the world? The EITI brings some fundamental
benefits (EITI 1 , 2009), such as:
1. Ensure that a greater portion of revenues generated from oil and mineral resources are used to benefit
the people in a nation.
2. Strengthen budget monitoring and oversight. EITI reports can be powerful tools for citizens and
legislators to understand how much money the government collects and where countries
choose, how the funds are spent. In some cases, EITI has led to the government’s recovery of
unaccounted-for funds or company underpayments. For example, for the case of Nigeria, the
The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative and the Implementation Perspective of Vietnam
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