Mongolia fourteenth EITI reconciliation report 2019

The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (“EITI”) is a global standard for improving transparency and accountability in the oil, gas and mining sectors. The Government of Mongolia announced the country’s adoption of EITI in 2006. In follow-up actions, a National EITI Council and a multi-stakeholder group (MSG), comprised of representatives of the government, mining companies, and civil society, were established to implement EITI.

Since adopting EITI, Mongolia has produced thirteen EITI Reports, and has appointed Grant Thornton Audit LLC as the Independent Administrator for the current (fourteenth) report. The Principles and Requirements for EITI implementation were re-stated in the 2016 and 2019 EITI Standard, which was formally launched at the EITI Global Conference in Lima on 24-25 February 2016.

This EITI Standard encourages countries to make use of existing reporting systems for EITI data collection and make the results transparent at source. It requires that the identity of those that own and profit from extractive activities should now be disclosed: all countries must ensure that the companies that bid for, operate or invest in extractive projects declare who their beneficial owners are.

The EITI’s quality assurance mechanism, Validation, which checks whether countries are adhering to the EITI Requirements, has also been refined in the 2016 EITI Standard. Although the bar for achieving compliance has not changed, the assessment will to a greater extent take into account the diversity in implementing country membership, recognise efforts to go beyond the minimum requirements and incentivise continuous improvements in implementation.

EITI Standard 2019 addresses implications of global issues such as environmental, social and gender equality issues, as well as encouraged all countries implementing EITI to make previously undisclosed mining sales, project reports and all contracts to be made in and after the year 2021 transparent. This report is the first report to be produced in Mongolia under the revised EITI standard 2019.