EITI may delist Sierra Leone

The international transparency group on natural resources has threatened to delist Sierra Leone if more effort is not made to achieve the benchmarks within one year and show accountability in the mining sector. The warning by the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) which suspended the country last week says the decision by the board for noncompliance could be followed by it being delisted or its candidacy status nullified. In a leaked correspondence between the Sierra Leone EITI Secretariat and an executive of the EITI headquarters, the transparency outfit says it recognises “the meaningful progress made in Sierra Leone but unfortunately had to conclude that Sierra Leone has not achieved compliance with all indicators as was both identified by the Validator’s report” which was submitted on 9 December “and by the assessment of the International Secretariat discussed in the Validation Committee.” The letter states that under EITI Rules, as approved in March 2011, countries that do not achieve compliance after a second validation should be automatically delisted. Sierra Leone has failed for the second time running which means that it should have been sent packing but it was given concession by being issued a final warning in the form of suspension. The suspension could remain in force for a period of up to 12 months, according to the leaked correspondence, by the end of which the country would have to undertake a Secretariat Review to demonstrate compliance or the country should fulfil its requirements in the weeks ahead. Failure to achieve compliance by this deadline would result in delisting. A Western diplomat in Freetown told Politico that if the country was delisted it would have “dire consequences on the way it receives funding from donors”. A civil society activist in the extractives sector, Cecelia Mattia said that they would discourage the World Bank and the IMF from providing budgetary support to Sierra Leone because it clearly proved the government was not serious about giving proper account of the country’s huge mineral resources which she said was all the EITI was about. Mattia, of the National Advocacy Coalition on the Extractives, said the tap would be turned off on donor funds because it would mean lack of seriousness about transparency and accounting for “our own resources”. Sources say that even the exact amount spent on the EITI process in the country is not properly accounted for. Said to range between US$ 8 million and US$ 10 million it has been funded by mostly the German government and the African Development Bank. Politico is investigating.