The INTOSAI Development Initiative (IDI) and Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) jointly organised the workshop “Strengthening Public Oversight of Extractive Industries” to explore the role Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) could play in strengthening public oversight of extractive industries, including how they could engage in the EITI process to better conduct impactful audits.
The workshop was attended by SAIs from countries with a significant extractive sector in Africa, Europe, the Caribbean and Latin America, as well as representatives from NORAD (Norwegian Development Aid Agency), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Global Initiative for Fiscal Transparency (GIFT).
Several high-level speakers took part in the event, including the Right Hon. Helen Clark, INTOSAI Development Co-operation Goodwill Ambassador for SAI Independence and Chair of the Board- EITI, Per Fredrik Pharo, Head of Partnership and Shared Prosperity in NORAD and Einar Gørrissen, Director General of IDI.
A common and important theme present in speakers’ presentations was SAI independence and its importance as a precondition for SAIs to make meaningful contributions to accountability in the extractive sector.
SAIs also shared experiences from engaging in extractive industry and imparted reflections on the challenges faced—such as the lack of appropriate mandates, resources and capacities needed to adequately address different segments of the Extractive Sector Value Chain.
One of the highlights of the workshop was the joint session between SAI rep- resentatives and EITI’s national co-ordinators. This segment brought to life the vision of the organising partners: to join the two global constituencies of the organisations as partners in transparency and accountability of the extractive sector. It also supported the “localisation” of the partnership by stimulating direct interaction between SAIs and their respective EITI national co-ordinator counterparts.
Going forward, both IDI and EITI agreed to promote their continued partnership and engage in stronger interactions at the country level to leverage on each other strengths and enhance contributions to transparency in the extractive sector.
Further, the organisations acknowledged the need to augment capacity-building across the spectrum and to advocate for issues of common interest. Particularly, the importance of independent oversight to establish trust between governments and their citizens, not least in extractive industries.
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Helen Clark, IDC Goodwill Ambassador for SAI Independence and EITI Board Chair giving high-level remarks |
Workshop participant Lalaina Ramiandrisoa (SAI Madagascar) ask questions during the Q&A |
