Considering it wrong to introduce representatives from Milli Maclis and the National Academy of Sciences on behalf of civil society institutions, the Coalition, as a party to the implementation of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative in the field of petroleum and mining development in Azerbaijan, on February 7th 2007 applied in written to the President of the Azerbaijan for the purpose of representation in the Supervisory Board of the State Oil Fund. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any response to the address which says: “Having the Coalition, which incorporates around 100 NGOs active within the scope of the mission to achieve transparency in extractive industries and the effective management of natural resources through active involvement of the civil society, left aside from the overall control over the management of the State Oil Fund lessens the public confidence in the use of oil revenues in the transparent way, thereby augmenting the risks associated with the effective management of public finance in general. This all concerns the coalition of civil society institutions Increasing Transparency in Extractive Industries.”

Referring to the Presidential Decree #511, of June 19th 2001, on making arrangements for the operation of the State Oil Fund of the Azerbaijan Republic, the Coalition considers appropriate the periodical release of the information on the activity of the Fund, including the revenue and expenditure balance, and the biannual statement of independent auditor’s conclusion of what the Government has received and the companies have paid [over the corresponding period]. However, the alliance also considers that all the measures mentioned above are not enough under the circumstances of an increase in the amount of petrodollars and growing expenditures. “The coalition of civil society institutions Increasing Transparency in Extractive Industries proposes to co-ordinate the budget of the State Oil Fund directly with the Azerbaijan Republic law on the budget systems, to consider the entire package of budget documents for the next year, including the budget of the Oil Fund, at the corresponding parliamentary hearings, to adopt a law on the management of oil incomes, in order to ensure the supervision by the legislature of the operation of the Fund, and to provide the Coalition, as a representative on behalf of civil society institutions, with a seat on the Supervisory Board of the Fund, in order to ensure civilian oversight of SOFAZ.”