In January, Victor Hart, chairman of the multi-stakeholder group steering committee of the T&T Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (TTEITI), was nominated by countries of the Americas and Europe to the EITI International board of directors.
Following swiftly on this, a delegation from T&T attended the Seventh EITI Global Conference in Peru last week where Hart was elected to office by the 49 member countries and took up his appointment. He is the first Caribbean national to be so honoured. The T&T delegation comprised Hart, Randy Maurice, steering committee member, Sherwin Long, head of the TTEITI secretariat and Vanita Redoy, policy analyst.
Hart said he believes his role will have a positive impact on all countries in the Caricom region that embark on EITI implementation, in particular, and the wider membership, in general. He will represent on the board EITI region six–counties from Europe and the Americas comprising Norway, Albania, UK, Germany, USA, Peru, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Dominican Republic and T&T. His alternate director on the board is Maria Isabel Ulloa Cruz, Vice-Minister Mines, Colombia.
Succeeding Clare Short (who visited T&T in 2015 to announce this country’s elevation to compliant country status, the highest membership level) as chair of the new board is Fredrik Reinfeldt, a former two-term Prime Minister of Sweden and chair of the European Council.
At the conference the board admitted Germany and the Dominican Republic to the EITI. This makes a total of 51 implementing countries, 31 of which (including T&T) have achieved compliant country status.
The new board recognises that publishing EITI reports is not a goal in itself nor is revenue transparency an end in itself. Therefore, the primary focus will be to shift emphasis from reconciling the extractive sectors revenue payments from energy companies to governments, to the promotion of the 2016 EITI standard covering the wider governance of extractive resources.
Following swiftly on this, a delegation from T&T attended the Seventh EITI Global Conference in Peru last week where Hart was elected to office by the 49 member countries and took up his appointment. He is the first Caribbean national to be so honoured. The T&T delegation comprised Hart, Randy Maurice, steering committee member, Sherwin Long, head of the TTEITI secretariat and Vanita Redoy, policy analyst.
Hart said he believes his role will have a positive impact on all countries in the Caricom region that embark on EITI implementation, in particular, and the wider membership, in general. He will represent on the board EITI region six–counties from Europe and the Americas comprising Norway, Albania, UK, Germany, USA, Peru, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Dominican Republic and T&T. His alternate director on the board is Maria Isabel Ulloa Cruz, Vice-Minister Mines, Colombia.
Succeeding Clare Short (who visited T&T in 2015 to announce this country’s elevation to compliant country status, the highest membership level) as chair of the new board is Fredrik Reinfeldt, a former two-term Prime Minister of Sweden and chair of the European Council.
At the conference the board admitted Germany and the Dominican Republic to the EITI. This makes a total of 51 implementing countries, 31 of which (including T&T) have achieved compliant country status.
The new board recognises that publishing EITI reports is not a goal in itself nor is revenue transparency an end in itself. Therefore, the primary focus will be to shift emphasis from reconciling the extractive sectors revenue payments from energy companies to governments, to the promotion of the 2016 EITI standard covering the wider governance of extractive resources.