WASHINGTON, March 9 (UPI) -- Participation has been "dismal" in an international program designed to show how nations profit from oil, gas and mining, human rights activists said.
Just two of 22 candidate countries met Tuesday's deadline to fulfill basic requirements for the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, Human Rights Watch said in a release.
Azerbaijan and Liberia met the filing deadline while Sierra Leone, Equatorial Guinea and the Democratic Republic of Sao Tome and Principe were among the countries that did not.
The lack of participation raises serious doubts about the commitment to disclose revenues, said Arvind Ganesan, a spokesman for Human Rights Watch.
"It's easy for governments to sign up for the initiative and claim they are open about the money they earn from lucrative natural resources," Ganesan said. "But the proof is in whether they actually do what they promised, and so far the results have been dismal."
The initiative, supported by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, was created to help combat corruption and mismanagement in energy-rich countries.
