Drilling Down: EITI Audit and Accounting Guide for Civil Society

In early 2007, RWI began working with industry expert David Goldwyn to create an extractive industries accounting and audit guide for civil society, entitled "Drilling Down," to be published in early 2008. The guide presents an overview of critical industry and financial concepts and issues, such as the different types of contracts used in the extractive sector, the types of government accounts and accounting systems, and the structure and flow of funds to and from government, all presented for a non-expert civil society audience.

The guide walks readers through the basic stages of the EITI process, and explains how to interpret, understand, and communicate about the results of the audit and then move beyond basic EITI implementation to more advanced forms of extractive revenue audit, disclosure and revenue and expenditure tracking. The guide will be accompanied by a training manual for activists. It will be available for free in print and online, and will be initially translated into Arabic, French, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Bahasa Indonesia.

ISSUES

EXPENDITURE TRANSPARENCY
It is impossible to ensure proper management of natural resource wealth by looking exclusively at revenues. Transparent and accountable management and expenditure of public funds is essential to addressing the poverty, corruption and autocracy that too often plague resource rich countries.
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CONTRACT TRANSPARENCY
The contracts between governments and oil, gas and mining companies are central to any effort to trace revenues and expenditures in the extractive industries. Extractive industries contracts determine the benefits, obligations and indeed the transparency of the agreements between countries and industry. Read more ...

COUNTRIES

Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone's mining and petroleum sector has made a significant recovery since the end of the 11-year civil war in 2002. Mining accounted for about 30% of GDP in 2007 and 80% of exports in 2008, with diamonds contributing 85% of that total. A new Mining and Minerals Law was signed in 2009, marking important progress towards improved sector governance and legal reforms.
Iraq
Iraq, a nation of 25 million people, holds the second largest oil reserves in the world, estimated to exceed 300 billion barrels. While Iraq enjoyed a period of relative prosperity and modernization in the 1950s and 1960s, its more recent history of pervasive violence, mismanagement and abuse has denied the people of Iraq any lasting benefits from this wealth. Today, a nation mired in conflict, Iraq suffers severe shortages of fuel and power, despite the fact that it literally "swims on a lake of oil."