Session of the Executive Committee of the EITI-Congo National Committee
Participants adopt the 2023-2025 Three-Year Work Plan
30 Mar, 2023
Thursday March 30, 2023 in the meeting room of the Ministry of Economy and Finance in Brazzaville, Jean-Baptiste Ondaye, Minister of Economy and Finance, and President of the National Committee of the Initiative for Transparency in Industries (CN-ITIE-Congo), chaired the meeting of the Executive Committee of the said National Committee, both in face-to-face and virtual mode. He had at his side his colleague Bruno Jean Richard Itoua, Minister of Hydrocarbons.
Among other items on the agenda, read by Florent Michel Okoko, Permanent Secretary of the CN-ITIE-Congo Executive Committee, were the review and adoption of the 2023-2025 Three-Year Work Plan; the presentation of the decision of the EITI International Board of Directors, following the 3rd validation of the Republic of Congo; and the review and adoption of the Terms of Reference (TOR) for the Independent Administrator, for the EITI-2021 Report.
Regarding the 2023-2025 Three-Year Work Plan, it was adopted in order to respond to the corrective measures identified during the third validation of Congo by the International Board of Directors, which took place in March 2023. These measures concern, in particular, on improving the governance of the Multi-Party Group (GMP); strengthening transparency in the governance of the extractive and forestry sectors; boosting EITI implementation in government and company systems; and reviewing the results and impacts of EITI implementation.
Regarding the decision of the EITI International Board of Directors, taken following the third validation of the Republic of Congo in March 2023, Christian Mounzéo, 3rd Vice-President of CN-ITIE Congo, declared , at the end of the meeting, that "the Congo has maintained itself as an implementing country and has been able to make moderate progress, with a score of 70.5 out of 100, in the implementation of the EITI Standard 2019. A score deemed insufficient to achieve the status of moderate compliant country, especially since the validation of Congo resulted in a number of corrective measures and recommendations that Congo must implement, for the period 2023 -2025. We discussed this decision and the commitments that the Congolese government must put in place to ensure, effectively, that the work of maintaining Congo's compliance status will be done by 2025".
Regarding the ToRs, Christian Mounzéo indicated that they were validated by the participants in the meeting. “The Independent Administrator will be responsible for coming to work in Congo, to collect data for the 2021 period, and to be able to provide the National Committee with the report that is expected”, he underlined.
As a reminder, this first meeting of the Executive Committee of the EITI-Congo National Committee took place a week after the signing, Thursday, March 23, 2023 in Brazzaville, of the Memorandum of Understanding between the French government and the Congolese government, as part of the launch of the FSPI-Extractive Industries Governance Project.
The Communication Unit of the Ministry of Economy and Finance