I wish to commend you all for your hard work, dedication and commitment to the process in 2011. Your hard work was manifested by the many successes this initiative attained in 2011. I wish at this juncture to recap a few of your impressive achievements.
Furthermore, your efforts resulted in the development of draft guidelines for the utilization of mineral royalties by District Assemblies, draft guidelines on corporate social responsibility, and a Draft Natural Resource Bill- 2011. It is my expectation that this year many of these draft documents will be finalized.
Having said this, let me also say that the work in the coming years will be more challenging especially with regard to the oil and gas sector. We need to build the required capacity to operate at equal footing with the oil and gas companies. We are already faced with the challenge of getting handle on the various expenditures being admitted as costs by the oil and gas companies which has an enormous implication for their payment of corporate tax. I am however hopeful that our future EITI reports can get to the bottom of all these costs which eventually have to be capitalized.