Colombian mining-energy industry meets international transparency standards

The International Secretariat of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) confirmed that Colombia is the first country on the continent to achieve the category: ‘satisfactory progress’ within the standard that transparently manages non-renewable resources and promotes accountability to citizens.

This initiative requires companies in the mining-energy industry to show licenses and contracts, monitor production, collect and allocate revenues, contribute socio-economically, and assess the impact generated in society. Of the 51 countries that make up EITI, only five have achieved the status of 'satisfactory progress', while the remaining 46 members are in process.

The EITI value scale has five categories to accredit the progress of its countries: outstanding, satisfactory, significant, inadequate, and no progress. Colombia ranked in the second tier in terms of importance, while the disclosure of contracts, management of revenues and expenses, national economic contribution, and access to mining-energy information achieved the highest rating: ‘outstanding’.

Results of Colombia in the validation carried out by the International Secretariat of EITI

Validation assessment card

Fredrik Reinfeldt, President of EITI, congratulated Colombia for its rapid adaptation to the standard and emphasized that «the results of the validation conducted on the country show that Colombia went beyond the requirements in several areas, demonstrating its commitment to transparency in the extractive sector.».

Francisco Paris, Director for Latin America of EITI, confirmed that «Colombia is the first country in the region to achieve ‘Satisfactory Progress’ in less than four years» and added that «this achievement will allow for the generation of new public policies in favor of the extractive sector, strengthen trust among stakeholders, and help mature the public debate.».

For his part, Germán Arce Zapata, Minister of Mines and Energy, expressed his satisfaction and thanked the commitment of civil society and companies to work for a more transparent extractive industry. «Colombia's new status is the result of the effort of a team that managed to overcome differences to move in the same direction for the development of the sector and the country.».

Carlos Andrés Cante Puentes, Deputy Minister of Mines, stated that achieving this status will significantly benefit the mining-energy industry. «We will hand over to the next government a Colombia recognized worldwide for its commitment to transparency, governance, and good practices, which has regained the momentum to accelerate foreign investment in a key sector for the national economy.».

Among the main recommendations that EITI made to Colombia to continue with its work plan are: to continue efforts to modernize the mining cadastre and hydrocarbon licensing systems, publish the real beneficiaries of companies with mining titles and oil contracts, and deepen territorial issues to find ways to provide more detailed information to communities with mining-energy activities.

Colombia's process in EITI

Colombia joined as a candidate country to EITI in 2014, to demonstrate its commitment to the management of revenues from natural resources, and to support Colombia's entry into the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). In January 2018, the International Secretariat of the organization began the validation of the country, to analyze whether the transparency work in the sector met the requirements of the initiative and assigned it a level of progress that made it an official member