Workshop Calls for Revenue Transparency in Oil, Gas Sector

The government and private companies are being encouraged to adopt a voluntary initiative in order to make revenues generated by the extractives sector more transparent. The workshop on the Best Practice of Governance in Extractive Industries and Revenue Management, which was held in Phnom Penh on Friday by the Cambodians for Resource Revenue Transparency (CRRT) group, called for the establishment of a transparency initiative ahead of 2016, when the government hopes that resources from offshore oil wells will finally be tapped. … A draft petroleum law, which is currently before the Council of Ministers, has been criticized by advocacy groups as lacking any financial transparency, as there are no provisions governing the public disclosure of payments made to the government’s national petroleum authority by oil and gas companies. …