New Project to Drive Extractive Industries Transparency in Ghana
Shout-Africa News -WALLDORF, Germany and ACCRA, Ghana, — The Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH and SAP AG, acting on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), have announced a development partnership to support Ghana in meeting the global standard for transparency in the oil and mining industries as set by the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). SAP is donating an enterprise performance management (EPM) solution from its SAP® BusinessObjects(TM) portfolio, which the Ghanaian Ministry of Finance will use to monitor and analyze payments and revenue flows from its hard minerals industry as well as from future oil and gas production. The solution will enable Ghana to efficiently quantify revenue flows to government and other stakeholders, identifying reasons for any shortfalls or overshoots.
SAP and GTZ took part in a two-day workshop in Accra on May 19 and 20 with the Ghana EITI National Steering Committee, a multi-stakeholder group that comprises representatives of the Ghanaian Ministries of Finance and Economic Planning, Lands and Natural Resources, and Energy, together with revenue agencies, mining companies, the Minerals Commission and representatives of Ghanaian civil society. The workshop agreed on project scope, governance and the implementation timeline, and nominated representative team members who will drive implementation over the next four months.
Ghana’s Deputy Minister of Finance, Seth E. Terkper stated, “The EITI process is a useful tool in augmenting the government’s efforts to improve existing structures on accountability and transparency. Successfully introducing an IT system to the EITI process will be a very significant addition to the process in Ghana.” Terkper added that the Ghana EITI process will tie in very well with the Ministry’s own agenda on Public Financial Management Reforms (PFM), particularly the Ghana Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS).
The support project for the EITI process in Ghana is closely connected to the GTZ Good Financial Governance program (GFG). Program manager Dr. David Nguyen-Thanh stated, “The immediate aim of our joint effort is to assist and speed up the EITI implementation in Ghana, thus helping to meet EITI’s standards for transparency in Ghana’s extractive industries. The project’s outcomes could also be relevant to other countries with a large extractive industries sector, so from our perspective it is an excellent opportunity.”
To improve financial oversight, SAP is providing the SAP® BusinessObjects(TM) Financial Consolidation application for budgeting, forecasting and reporting, together with SAP BusinessObjects business intelligence (BI) solutions. These applications give the world’s largest commercial and public organizations the insight, speed, agility and breadth of analysis needed to complete financial reporting cycles efficiently and in compliance with international accounting standards such as IFRS.
This effort is an example of SAP’s broad-based social innovation partnerships, aimed at using technology to make society more sustainable and the world’s businesses run better. By mobilizing SAP’s unique expertise in technology and business, the company seeks to make a measurable impact on countries such as Ghana and South Africa.
“SAP aims to not only help businesses run better, but help the world run better,” said Jim Hagemann Snabe, co-CEO of SAP AG and member of the Executive Board. “The Ghana EITI project is one such project where we’re pleased to bring both our software and our industry and business process expertise to help Ghana meet the global standard for transparency in the oil and mining industries.”
The Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH is a federally owned organization that works worldwide in the field of international cooperation for sustainable development. Its mandate is to support the German government in achieving its development objectives. GTZ provides viable, forward-looking solutions for political, economic, ecological and social development in a globalised world. Sometimes working under difficult conditions, it promotes complex reforms and change processes. GTZ’s corporate objective is to improve people’s lives on a sustainable basis.
The Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) is a coalition of governments, companies, civil society groups, investors andinternational organizations. The EITI standard that strengthens governance by improving transparency and accountability in the extractives sector is implemented in 31 countries around the world. It supports improved governance in resource-rich countries through the verification and full publication of company payments and government revenues from oil, gas and mining. The EITI has a robust yet flexible methodology that ensures a global standard is maintained throughout the different implementing countries. The EITI Board and the international Secretariat are the guardians of that methodology. Implementation itself, however, is the responsibility of individual countries.
The international community provides support of EITI implementation both bilaterally and through the EITI Multi-Donor Trust Fund managed by the World Bank. The Secretariat is funded by the supporting countries and the supporting companies. Implementing country governments, pay for the implementation and validation of their EITI process.
SAP is the world’s leading provider of business software(*), offering applications and services that enable companies of all sizes and in more than 25 industries to become best-run businesses. With more than 97,000 customers in over 120 countries, the company is listed on several exchanges, including the Frankfurt stock exchange and NYSE, under the symbol “SAP.”
(*) SAP defines business software as comprising enterprise resource planning, business intelligence, and related applications.
