Monrovia – The Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) International has spoken on the appointment of Gabriel Nyenkan as head of Secretariat for the Liberia Extractive Industry Transparency Initiatives (LEITI) by President George Weah.
Report by Edwin G. Genoway, Jr [email protected]
The EITI International point of contact for Liberia, Pablo Valverde, said they have no part to play in any member State’s local secretariat setup and Liberia is no exception.
According to Valverde, it is not up to the EITI to pass judgement on how a country decides to organize its national secretariat.
“It is not up to the EITI Board nor the International Secretariat to pass judgement on how a country decides to organize its national secretariat, appoint its national coordinator, etc. As part of validation, the EITI’s quality-assurance mechanism, the EITI does assess countries’ progress in implementing the EITI Standard, which includes in Requirements 1.1-1.5 provisions on ensuring that there is adequate multi-stakeholder oversight.”
Valverde hoped that the Liberian government will speedily set up the Multi-Stakeholders Group (MSG) for the country to bounce back and continue the EITI process.
The EITI executive further informed FrontPageAfrica via email that the International Secretariat is there to support stakeholders in understanding and implementing the EITI Standard so that countries can use it to improve the governance of their extractive industries.
He responded to inquiries from this newspaper on the position of EITI International as it relates to the controversial appointment of Nyenkan by President George Weah.
Valverde noted that it is important to point out that neither the EITI Board nor the International Secretariat have expressed any views on the appointment of Mr. Nyenkan.
He said the EITI is in constant communication with the Nyenkan’s administration.
“We have had a number of telephone conversations and email exchanges with LEITI since February 2018, including with Mr. Nyenkan, we also informed LEITI about the Board meeting in Berlin and would have welcomed Mr. Nyenkan to participate as an observer; however, he was unable to secure a visa to Germany on time.”
He also disclosed that the EITI’s decision to suspend Liberia was due to the failure of the country to submit its report on time.
“Allow me to clarify that the Board’s decision to proceed with the suspension only concerns Liberia having missed the reporting deadline.”
Requirement 8.2 in the EITI Standard says, “If the EITI Report is not published by the required deadline, the country will be suspended.”
He disclosed that Liberia’s suspension might be lifted if the EITI Board is satisfied that the outstanding report is published within six months of the deadline.
“In other words, suspension is temporary, and the suspension can be lifted once LEITI’s report is published,” he noted.
The EITI Board on the 4th of September 2018 decided to suspend Liberia for not having published the EITI report for the fiscal period ending June 2016 within the 1 July 2018 deadline.
The decision followed a request by the Government of Liberia to extend the reporting deadline, set by the EITI Standard.
The Board found that the request did not meet the criteria for granting an extension.
“It is unfortunate that Liberia missed its reporting deadline. We are hoping that this is a temporary setback. We encourage the Government to consult all the relevant stakeholders and ensure that they are adequately represented in Liberia’s EITI multi-stakeholders group, in accordance with the EITI Standard,” said the EITI’s Acting Executive Director Eddie Rich.
The suspension of Liberia from the EITI process prompted blame shifting at the offices of LEITI.
LEITI controversial Head of Secretariat Gabriel Nyenkan attributed Liberia’s suspension from the global process to the effect of the 2017 political transition.
Providing reason why the delay in Liberia submitting its report, Nyenkan blamed the electoral dispute litigation.
According to him, the dispute prevented the constitution of a new multi-stakeholders steering group, thereby leading to making the operations of LEITI dormant at the time.
“At that time before the suspension of Liberia, the MSG’s tenure had expired. They were not legally seated, so they could not do anything that was some of the reasons why we delayed and could not make it on time.”
Mr. Nyenkan refuted claims that his controversial takeover of the secretariat should be blamed for the country’s suspension.
He contended that his administration should not take red marks for the failure of the previous administration.
Asked when the delayed report will be published, Nyenkan could not say as it is the responsibility of the MSG to commission, review, endorse and publish reports.