Categories: Economy
      Date: Sep 19, 2007
     Title: Kazakhstan to publish its first EITI report in November

Kazakhstan will publish its first report within the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) next November, Deputy Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Bolat Akchulakov told a press briefing in Astana.



Currently the Energy Ministry is looking for an audit company for the EITI program.


The audit company awarded with the contract "will be mandated to collect information from extractive industry companies and request the government to reveal tax payment data. Having examined all submitted information the mandated auditor will compile a report to submit it to the EITI national council for media distribution.”

This year the report will feature the tax audit for 2005, Akchulakov said. The EITI report will be published annually.

According to the deputy minister, currently 92 Kazakh companies have joined the initiative, including 51 from the oil and gas sector and 41 mining businesses.

Akchulakov called for other companies to join the initiative.