Angola has just been admitted as a member of the Initiative for Transparency in Extractive Industries (EITI), three years after having started the process. Speaking to the press, the Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources of Angola, Diamantino Azevedo, said that all the procedures that the EITI required for acceptance as a member were fulfilled, the first step having been the declaration of intent by the Angolan government.
Diamantino Azevedo underlined that Angola took on the challenge taking into account the principle of transparency and the fight against corruption, which governs the governance of the Angolan President, João Lourenço.
The Angolan governor and president of the national commission that led the process pointed out that the team integrated, in addition to representatives of the government, national and foreign mining and oil companies, members of civil society.
“We had the process of working with civil society from the beginning and I take this opportunity to thank them for their engagement throughout the process,” he said, quoted by Lusa news agency.
According to the source the candidacy of Angola was submitted in March this year, having passed through different EITI evaluation bodies, culminating with the admission by the EITI International Committee.
The minister said that political strategies and reforms in the sector contributed to the acceptance, namely the elimination of some conflicts of interest at the level of the extractive industry.
“And that’s how we did it, first, changing the governance model, and the new governance models were approved, both for the mining sector and for the oil sector, which essentially stratify the activity of each body, he pointed out.
