• What is the purpose of the Revenue Transparency Project?
• From ‘resource curse’ to resource blessing?
• What are the planned products for the project?
• Our interactive process
• Timeline of activities
• How can stakeholders give input or get involved?
• Funding of the project
• Project history - 2005 'Beyond the Rhetoric' reports, 2008 Promoting Revenue Transparency Report

For further information or questions contact: François Valérian – Senior Project Coordinator – Revenue Transparency Programme
revenuetransparency@transparency.org.

The Project aims at making extractive industries’ revenues of most benefit to society by increasing the transparency and accountability of extractive industry revenues.

To achieve this purpose, the project will provide robust standards for revenue transparency and tools to measure progress in this field, encouraging companies and governments engaged in the extractive industries to improve transparency and accountability to citizens and investors. This accountability should in turn support good practice and, more specifically, limit bad practices that can foster conflict, poverty, poor development and corporate risk.

The Promoting Revenue Transparency Project has three specific objectives which add value to existing revenue transparency initiatives and particularly to EITI:

• To measure revenue transparency performance and diagnose areas for improvement.
• To develop broad standards for revenue transparency.
• To support the use of the revenue transparency standards and measures of performance by companies, rating agencies, investors, government regulators and civil society.

While much of this wealth comes from countries with high levels of poverty, such funds have the potential to drive social and economic development if they are well used.

In a perverse phenomenon that has been dubbed “paradox of plenty or ”resource curse”, the great wealth generated by extractive revenues can undermine economic growth as huge windfalls fuel grand-scale corruption and attracts rent-seekers in the public and private sectors. In addition to the ‘Dutch disease’ other consequences include conflict over the revenues or fueled with arms paid for from extractive industries’ profits, and a deepening of poverty that worsens as social investments are misappropriated or mismanaged. This in turn, can weaken political cohesion and the rule of law. Such unstable environments can damage company reputations and lower investor returns.

Insisting on transparent resource governance is necessary to transform this curse into a blessing. Greater public knowledge of the scale of extractive industry revenues, how these flow from oil producers to governments, as well as greater understanding of the oversight systems that are in place, can potentially place pressures on governments to use these revenues in the public interest in support of social and infrastructure programs that can boost economic growth and reduce poverty. Absent such transparency, governments and companies may behave in ways that will enhance the wealth of the few and yield no benefit to the many.

A vital approach to improving transparency lies in strengthening the accountability of decision-makers – of host governments and companies to citizens and of companies to investors. This requires civil society roles in monitoring processes and in constructive partnerships with companies and governments. To secure meaningful accountability there has to be adequate information about the resources being extracted and the flow of revenues to public authorities. There has been increasing recognition by many actors in the international community in recent years of the need for greater transparency in this area [3].

Corruption Perceptions and Extractive Resources Dependency Map (Hydrocarbons)
(click to enlarge)

In 2005, Save the Children UK produced the first reports relating to companies and home governments [4]. Transparency International published a Companies Report in 2009 and will produce a new iteration of this report, planned for the end of 2010, including approximately 42 oil and gas companies and their operations in about 21 countries.

The 2010 report, as with previous reports, will be supported by preparatory work and consultation with various stakeholders and, once published, media, outreach and other promotional work will raise and sustain awareness of the report and the findings on performance.

In addition to this initiative will promote the development of an increased network of organisations working together on this issue, the development of encompassing standards that facilitate benchmarking and the substantive information and knowledge contributions that should make further work on this area, like for example revenue expenditure monitoring, possible.

Transparency International is also exploring the publication of a similar report on mining companies.

In the initial stages of producing the Companies Report, Transparency International consults with companies and industry groups on the methodology used and results uncovered. The methodology is also discussed with the NGO community, amongst which are the Revenue Watch Institute, Secours Catholique, OXFAM and the members of the Publish What You Pay coalition,

TI National Chapters and members of these organisations and coalitions in key countries will also contribute to the Project by participating actively in its in-country implementation process, by fostering multi-stakeholder dialogue and using the report to promote revenue transparency in their countries.

We hope that more organisations and institutions with similar aims and aspirations will join our efforts in the area of revenue transparency.

Participatory engagement of all key stakeholders is one of the most essential elements of the PRT’s approach and methodology. Engaging and consulting stakeholders is crucial to the production of the reports and the advocacy efforts they entail. In order to facilitate this, different avenues and channels of involvement have been incorporated into the Project’s activities .

• Get involved in the Companies Report

Companies, governments NGOs or others are welcome to send their comments and suggestions to revenuetransparency@transparency.org at any time.

The project is currently funded on Transparency International core funds. It has also received funds from the Revenue Watch Institute, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland, CAFOD, Secours Catholique – Caritas France and Save the Children UK.