Government is expected to publish its income from the sale of the country's crude oil. Similarly, companies which buy the oil would be obliged to publish the amounts they paid to government for it. This follows Cabinet approval of a document to accelerate Ghana's affiliation to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) to subject the crude production and sales to public scrutiny. EITI is a coalition of governments, civil society groups, investors and international organisations which promotes transparency and accountability in the extractive or mining industries such as gold, diamond, oil and gas. Ghana became an EITI candidate in the mining sector in 2007 and has so far, produced three reports outlining payments and revenues from the sector. The government then backdated the receipt of revenue from the mining sector in 2004 and 2005, while the reports for the years 2006 to 2008, were yet to be prepared. Disclosing this to the Times, Edward Bawa, spokesman for the Minister of Energy, said government had set up a secretariat known as the Ghana EITI (GHEITI) within the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning to fine-tune the documentation for Ghana to undergo validation to become an EITI complaint member in the gas and oil sector. To accelerate the process, he said government had also setup a 20-member committee of stakeholders in the industry to ensure the timely extension of the principles of EITI to the oil and gas sector, stressing that government's plan to submit itself to the EITI standard in the oil and gas sector was an indication that revenue from the industry would be used judiciously and for the good of the people. Mr. Bawa said the high standard of accounting and reporting under the EITI regulations satisfied investor interest and ensured greater openness in transactions. "With the crude production, Ghana has the opportunity to offer economic and social development to the people, therefore creating transparency and accountability is necessary if the resources are to lead socio-economy development and sustainability. A source at the Civil Society Platform on Oil and Gas told the Times that the publication of EITI reports in the mining sector had increased transparency on mining revenue and exposed deficiencies in the Mining Act which had resulted in low revenue to government. "A lot will be at stake when oil contracts between government and oil companies are being negotiated, and with annual revenues of several billions of dollars on the table, every small detail and percentage matters," said the source. Source: Ghanaian Times/Ghana