Oil Revenues for the Benefit of Everyone

A conference held in the framework of the Oil Revenues are Ours campaign being conducted by the

Increasing Transparency in Extractive Industries (ITEI) coalition

Brief Information

Increasing Transparency in Extractive Industries, a union of civil society organizations of Azerbaijan, at the Grand Europe Hotel on October 20^th, 2006, conducted a conference Oil Revenues for the Benefit of Everyone, with financial and organizational support from the USAID and the Counterpart International, respectively, in the framework of the project known as Civil Society. Participating in the event were representatives from the UK Embassy to Azerbaijan, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, civil society organizations, as well as intellectuals, media and members of the ITEI coalition.

Mr Sabit Bagirov, a coordinator of the ITEI coalition board, presided over the event.

HE Dr. Lori Bristow, the ambassador of the UK to Azerbaijan, addressed the conference on the future of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). He made an emphasis on time maturity to transform EITI into an international initiative by ensuring transparency with respect to both revenues and expenditures, to be generated in the extractive industry.

Mr Shahmar Movsumov, the executive director of the State oil fund (SOFAR), who recently returned from an Oslo-hosted international conference on EITI, spoke about the Oil Fund, its achievements and future missions. He pointed to the international recognition, appreciation and study of Azerbaijan's experience in the introduction of EITI, and added that despite significant achievements of Azerbaijan, the other countries that had joined the initiative as well, needed to do much to ensure transparency of revenues. As to the establishment of transparency in expenditures, according to Mr Movsumov, the use of oil incomes is based on the particular strategy of the State, and the Government has the oversight of those corresponding receipts, therefore, there isn't any need to cover expenditures by EITI.

Mr Gregory Yaderjeychak, the head of the World Bank's Country Office in Azerbaijan, expressed the readiness of his organization to come up with recommendations on the effective use of the SOFAR-accumulated means. He noted that compliance with the international standards for accountability should have been one of the directions within the format of introduction of EITI. He also expressed confidence in future capacity of the Coalition, in conjunction with other civil society organizations, to successfully establish the monitoring of expenses as well. The World Bank, as Mr Yaderjeychak said, would try to assist in any possible way to do that work.

Mr Ogtay Gulaliyev, a member of the EITI Coalition Board and the chairman of the working group for the Oil Revenues are Ours campaign, informed the audience of the operations he was in charge of, and stated that nine projects had been implemented in the framework of the campaign, involving more than 30 different organizations. Also participating in the above-mentioned events were TV and radio channels, news agencies, newspapers and magazines. All information, concerning actions that had been carried out in the framework of the campaign, has been posted at the corresponding website. The Coalition pursued two goals towards the implementation of the campaign: development of public awareness and the strengthening of civil society. As part of the action plan, there were organized and conducted roundtables in seven universities, as well as meetings with civil society representatives in regions, talk shows on TV and weekly radio-dialogues. A documentary featuring oil revenues was aired on regional TVs, while public television (ITV) broadcasted the corresponding advertisement footage. Participants of the events were provided with different sets of written material, including books, pocket-sized, throw-over and loose-leaf calendars.

At the end of the plenary #1, speakers answered questions raised by participants of the conference. Some were responded by Mr. Ogtay Hagverdiyev, the head of a department at the Ministry of Economic Development of Azerbaijan.

During the plenary #2, Dr Inglab Ahmadov, a member of the Coalition Board and director of the Public Finance Monitoring Centre, addressed the audience on Oil Revenues and Management of Public Finance. He carried out a comparative analysis of public finance specifics in the countries, which are rich in mineral wealth, and those, which have limited natural resources, and explained the reasons for increasingly better economic indicators of the majority of nations in the second group. For that he put an emphasis on the effect of expenditures and highlighted the urgency of structural reforms in order to achieve the efficiency from the use of SOFAR-accumulated funds.

Dr Rassim Mussabayov, an analyst, delivered a speech on the Effect of Oil Revenues on Reforms. After, both speakers answered the questions put by participants of the conference.

During the plenary #3, Mr Bazil Zavoyco, a representative from the International Monetary Fund, addressed the audience on the World Experience in Settling Problems Accompanying Large Incomes. He stated about clear symptoms of the Dutch Disease in Azerbaijan, thereby adding that a package of proposals had been drawn up to prevent the impending curse.

Then, the floor was passed to Mr Farda Assadov, the country director of the Open Society Institute (OSI) in Azerbaijan, to speak about EITI Relevant Programs of the OSI, particularly, ongoing developments in the framework of the OSI's Transparency Program, and the role and mission of the civil society in establishing the oversight of public revenues and expenditures. Mr Assadov highlighted the time to stretch the scope of work of EITI out to additional expenditures as well, and expressed the greater likelihood of OSI AF's support of the corresponding projects.

Ms Mirvari Gahramanly, a member of the EITI Coalition Board, addressed the audience on Oil Incomes and the Role and Responsibilities of Civil Society. She said that civil society should have attached a particular attention to the use of oil revenues within the upcoming period. She noted the importance of making changes in the Memorandum of Understanding that had been signed among the Government of Azerbaijan, oil companies active in the country, and the Coalition. The most importance change, according to Ms Gahramanly, was the entitlement of the Coalition for the audit and verification/revision of the corresponding reports.

At the end of the conference, the participants took an active part in discussions, which had been organized to bring clarity into a series of issues concerning the civil society with respect to oil revenues and their spending.

In total, more than 80 participants attended the conference.

Last correction date of the file: 24/7/2008 - 15:0:30