Transparency initiative annual report

INTRODUCTION

Background

The EITI supports improved governance in resource-rich countries through the full publication and verification of company payments and government revenues from oil, gas and mining industries. EITI is a voluntary initiative, supported by a coalition of companies, governments, investors and civil society organizations. Alongside with other efforts to improve transparency in government budget practice, the EITI begins a process whereby citizens can hold their governments to account for the use of those revenues.

Azerbaijan joined the EITI in 2003 and volunteered to become a pilot country in the implementation of the initiative. Azerbaijan has instituted a regular process of disclosing, reconciling and publishing payments of extractive sector companies to the Government and Government receipts from those companies. The first EITI report in Azerbaijan was published in 2005. This is the 20^th EITI Report in Azerbaijan, and covers the year ended 31 December 2015.
Azerbaijan was admitted to EITI as a candidate country on 27 September 2007 and nominated as the first “EITI compliant member” status on 16 February 2009. Azerbaijan was downgraded to “candidate country” at the 29^th EITI International Board meeting in Brazzaville in 2015 on the basis of the Validation report. The “candidate country” status remained unchanged at the 35^th EITI International Board meeting held in Astana in 2016.
In 2015, the EITI implementation in Azerbaijan was mainly focused on implementing the initiative and EITI reporting in the country in accordance with the new EITI Standard, improving readability and comprehensibility of the EITI reports for population, conducting awareness raising activities about EITI and upholding effective dialogue among government, civil society and companies.