The last two months have seen many countries make significant progress towards implementing the EITI standard. In this edition of the EITI Newsletter we take a special look at Liberia that now has become the second EITI Compliant country.
I witnessed first hand the tremendous strides that the Liberia EITI has made when I visited the country recently. In February, the recently war-torn country published its first EITI report that compares what companies say that they have paid in taxes, royalties and fees, with what the government say that they received. While the report contains sizeable discrepancies – some related to accounting processes and errors, some suspicious payments, and one clear-cut case of fraud – I am impressed by the commitment to have an open dialogue about these issues. Practical steps are really being taking in order to tackle the suspicion and distrust that led to much of the conflict in the past.
