FIRST MEETING OF EITI COALITION HELD

Baku, IAA "Trend" May 19 corr. P.Kesamanski

The first meeting of the Board of the Extractive Industries Transparency (EITI) Coalition uniting over thirty nongovernmental organizations has been recently held, Trend reports.

Attending the gathering were members of the Board: Sabit Bagirov, head of Baku Office of Transparency International, Ingilab Ahmadov, Director of the Public Finance Monitoring Center (PFMC), Mirvari Gahramanly, Committee on Oilmen Rights Protection, Mais Gulmaliyev, head of the Center For Civil Society, Himayat Rizvangizi, head of Himayadar organization, Gubad Ibadoglu, chairman of the Union of Economist Journalists, Sevgim Rahmanov, chairman of Union of Merchants and Producers.

The gathering discussed and adopted an action plan forth the nearest two months. The plan envisages measures such as analysis of the forms of accountability, designed by SOFAZ, opinion of the Coalition in this respect, the organization of a series of meetings with representatives of DFID, SOFAZ and oil companies, the presentation of the coalition and its program on activities, as well as organization of the second general assembly of the Coalition in midJune.

The Board elected Bagirov as coordinator.

The issues of possible financing the activities of the Board were discussed with Farda Asadov, Executive Director of the Open Society Institute. There was reached an agreement on submitting an appropriate proposal to the Institute.