The Government of Mexico progress on Transparency in the Sector of Extractive Industries

As part of the Plan of Action 2013-2015, the Open Government Partnership (OGP, and AGA, in Spanish), the Government of the Republic formed an interdepartmental working group to achieve the accession of our country to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI).

This international initiative is a tripartite mechanism, in which civil society, industry and government, consolidate and validate the information and transparency schemes on industries that exploit the hydrocarbon resources and minerals of the country. The process of joining the EITI consists of several stages, including the preparation and presentation of the candidacy of an acceding country, as well as the validation of compliance with its standards.

For its part, the OGP is a multilateral initiative, where the governments of 63 countries are working together with civil society to promote the citizen participation, increase the transparency, fight the corruption and use technology as an enabler of this opening.

The working group of the Government of Mexico will be composed of the Secretariat of Energy (SENER), the Secretariat of Economy (SE) and the Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP, all the acronyms in Spanish). It will be headed on a rotating basis by the three members, with the SENER who will lead it for the first year.

The Public servants who make up this interdepartmental group are: the Undersecretary of Hydrocarbons of the SENER, María de Lourdes Melgar Palacios; the Undersecretary of Income of the SHCP, Miguel Messmacher Linartas, and the General Coordinator of Mining of the Secretariat of Economy, Mario Alfonso Cantú Suárez.

Whenever the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative is implemented in collaboration with civil society and the private sector, in the following months, the inter-ministerial group will work in coordination with organizations in these sectors, to develop a work plan that enables the implementation of the EITI standard and submit an application for the candidacy of Mexico to the International Council of this initiative.

The first requirement for a country to present its candidacy for the EITI is making a public and unequivocal statement about the intention to adopt the standard, which took place on last January 6, 2015.

With the designation of the UnderSecretary of Hydrocarbons as senior official to lead the implementation of the EITI standard during the first year, the second requirement to present the candidacy to this initiative has been fulfilled.

Thus, the Government of Mexico moves on Transparency in the Sector of Extractive Industries.