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In the interest of transparency, and to ensure that American taxpayers are receiving every dollar due for the extraction of
their natural resources, President Obama announced the U.S. commitment to implement the international standard known as the
Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) in the Plan. In October 2011, he designated the Secretary of the Interior
as the senior U.S. official responsible for the implementation of EITI, and that same day the Secretary committed to work
with civil society and industry to do so. Together, these actions fulfilled the first three of five sign-up requirements toward
applying for EITI Candidacy. From November 2011 to February 2012, the Administration began a "get smart" phase on EITI -a
team of officials met with past and present EITI Board members and the EITI International Secretariat, observed an EITI Board
meeting, and met with Norwegian EITI Secretariat counterparts to obtain lessons learned on EITI implementation. From February
to June 2012, the Administration conducted extensive public outreach to understand what types of people and organizations
could best represent U.S. stakeholders, and how to best form a multi-stakeholder group to implement EITI in the United States.
The Administration held two public comment periods, seven public listening sessions (in Anchorage, Denver, Houston, New Orleans,
Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Washington, D.C.), a webinar, and a workshop. Based on an independent stakeholder assessment derived
from the input received, in July 2012, the Secretary of the Interior established an Advisory Committee under the Federal Advisory
Committee Act to serve as the initial USEITI Multi-Stakeholder Group. From mid-July to mid-October, the Administration solicited
and received nominations for the Committee from civil society, industry and government, and conducted two months of vetting
and review of the nominees. On December 22, 2012, the Secretary appointed twenty-one primary and twenty alternate members
to the USEITI Multi-Stakeholder Group (USEITI MSG). By establishing the Multi-Stakeholder Group, the U.S. completed the fourth
of five sign-up requirements toward EITI Candidacy. On February 13, 2013, the Secretary of the Interior hosted the first meeting
of the USEITI MSG in Washington, D.C. At their first meeting, the group reviewed terms of reference for how they will work
together in a consensus-based fashion, discussed a timeline for completing work in 2013, and began work on the U.S. candidacy
application that must be delivered to and reviewed by the EITI International Board. The Administration views the second term
as yet another moment of opportunity for EITI, during which government, civil society, and industry may chart a new course
together for open and responsive governance. The United States is operating on an ambitious schedule to prepare and submit
our EITI candidacy application to the EITI Board, with the hope that it can be approved by the EITI Board in 2013. Completion
of the candidacy application would fulfill the fifth of the requirements to apply for Candidacy. Once the application is accepted
and the United States becomes an EITI Candidate country, the U.S. Government will have eighteen months to fulfill Candidacy
requirements and produce its first EITI report, and another year to attain EITI Compliant status. This will involve extensive
cooperation and effort by the USEITI Multi-Stakeholder Group, working collaboratively across government, industry and civil
society to determine which revenues collected by government and paid by industry are material for reporting; how that data
should be reported so that it is informative and useful to the American public; when the data will be reported and by whom,
and who will collect it; and who will be the independent auditor that will compare the government and industry reports and
work with both to handle any discrepancies.
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Will Work in Partnership with Industry and Citizens to Build on Recent Progress. The Administration has already made important
strides in reforming the management of our natural resources to ensure that there are no conflicts of interest between the
production and the collection of revenues from these resources. Signing onto the EITI initiative will further these objectives
by creating additional "sunshine" for the process of collecting revenues from natural resource extraction. Industry already
provides the Federal Government with this data. We should share it with all of our citizens. Toward that end, the Federal
Government will work with industry and citizens to develop a sensible plan over the next two years for disclosing relevant
information and enhancing the accountability and transparency of our revenue collection efforts.
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