EITI implementation promoting transparency and accountability in extractive industry in vietnam

A O NTAB L TY N EXTRA T VE ND STRY NV ETNAM--- uye oe Qua -Duo Va T o} ---ntrod ction Mining is a complicated indust ial secto that equi es high levels oft anspa ency fo good gove nance

A O NTAB L TY N EXTRA T VE ND STRY NV ETNAM

- uye oe Qua -Duo Va T o}

-ntrod ction

Mining is a complicated indust ial secto that equi es high levels oft anspa ency

fo good gove nance The main challenges elated to this secto includes co uption, tax f aud, ineffective evenue management and negative envi onmental and social impacts

Due to the complication of mining indust y secto , among many global initiatives aim to b ing a bette gove nance up-to-date, the Ext active Indust y T anspa ency Initiative (EITI) is conside ed to be the most effective tool The p inciples of EITI

a e to disclose elevant info mation du ing the mining chain, including: (i) Licensing, (ii) P oduction data, (iii) State-o ned ente p ises (SOEs), (iv) Ma o evenues, (v) Local evenue, (vi) Revenue management; and (vii) Social impacts

By Decembe 20 8, the e have been 52 count ies implementing EITI al eady, including developed count ies as the UK, u s, No ay and developing count ies as Indonesia, Myanma , Philippines, Nige ia as ell The effectiveness of EITI has also been demonst ated in many count ies Fo example, by implementing this initiative, Nige ia avoided an annual loss of u s $ billion f om the mining secto , hich has been invested on inf ast uctu e, education, ag icultu e

he Centerfor eople and Nature Reconciliation ( hecoordinating office ofVietnam Mining Coaltion)

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The epo t “Implementing EI I to reform the mining industry in Vietnam” by Vietnam Mining Coaltion (VMC), PanNatu e and VCCI clea ly p oved that a pa t

of Vietnam's la s and elevant documents a e able to meet some of equi ement of EITI implementation on epo ting and info mation t anspa ency - this is conside ed

a big advantage fo implementing EITI Ho eve , in compa sion ith the p inciples of EITI, Vietnams policies still lack a monito ing and accountability mechanism, leading

to limitations in policies and la s enfo cement in p actice EITI ill complement these gaps and p omote bette policy and la enfo cement

Situation of the mining indust y in Vietnam

Acco ding to geological data, Vietnam has discove ed 5,000 mines and mining sites of 60 diffe ent mine als Ove the past t o decades, the scale of Vietnam mining indust y has g o n apidly Inte national assessments sho s that Vietnam anks seventh in c ude oil exploitation in the Asia-Pacific egion, globally cont ibuting 2 3%

of total tin output and 8% of total cement output in 20 2 (USGS, 20 4) Due to data of Minist y of Natu al Resou ces and Envi onment (MONRE), in 20 3, Vietnam ext acted 42 6 million tons ofcoal, 3 million tons ofi on o e, 3 million tons ofAppatite,

3 thousand tons ofManganese and many othe mine als ith la ge output Ho eve , the count y's mining indust y is still facing many challenges elated to envi onmental imp ovement and esto ation; ensu ing social secu ity, as ell as combating the loss of state evenues f om mining activities

Fi stly, licensing is the most impo tant step in the p ocess of mine al esou ces management Licensing is aimed to select a fi m ith app op iate capacity to effectively implement the p o ect The efo e, the licensing p ocess equi es competition and a high deg ee of t anspa ency The Mine al La 20 0 p ovides 2 types of licensing: auction and non-auction Ho eve , the c ite ia to identify the non-auction a ea as ell as the fo evaluating and selecting app op iate fi m is not clea ly defined In addition, the cu ent policies do not equi e disclosu e of the enti e licensing p ocess,

no info mation about candidates egiste ed fo licensing o selected licensees eithe

As the esult, the level of t anspa ency in the cu ent licensing p ocess is ve y limited, leading to a lack of competition

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Secondly, many of Vietnam’s mine als ill be depleted in the ve y nea futu e Although the count y has mo e than 60 kinds of mine als, Vietnam is not conside ed

as a mine al- ich count y, because of lo potential, small ese ve and not dive se in cate go y With the cu ent scale of exploitation, many mine als ill be un out in the nea futu e Acco ding to the esea ch of Vietnam Union of Geological Sciences, the emaining time of oil and gas exploitation is 56 yea s, ba ite 2 yea s, tin yea s, lead - zinc 7 yea s and gold 2 yea s Besides, due to outdated technology, the loss in exploitation and p ocessing is quite high, acounting fo 40-60% fo unde g ound coal mining, 26-43% fo apatite o e, 5-30 % fo metal o es and 5-20% fo const uction mate ials (Vietnam Economic Ne s, 20 2)

Thi dly, despite being exploited on a la ge scale, the evenue f om mining is ve y limited Acco ding to data f om Minist y of Finance (MOF), natu al esou ces tax in the pe iod of 20 - 20 4 accounted fo only 0 “ 2% of the total budget evenue Among the cu ent st uctu e of taxes and fees in the mining indust y in Vietnam, 30% of total evenue is co po ate income tax, VAT and im-ex tax Mean hile, the emaining 70% is oyalties and envi onmental p otection fees Budget evenues a e gene ally not commensu ate ith social and envi onmental damages The cu ent mining evenue loss is conside ed to be ve y huge hile the main sou ces of evenue

a e based on the output decla ed by the companies and upto no the monito ing mechanism is ineffective (Pan Natu e, 20 5) In addition, illegal exploitation and expo t a e common in subnational level, leading to a huge loss of budget and natu al mine al esou ces

Fou thly, the cu ent management mechanism doesn’t c eate a t anspa ent and competitive envi onment fo sustainable investment A su vey conducted by VCCI

in 20 4 sho ed that mining fi ms did not app eciate the level of t anspa ency in the Vietnam’s business envi onment, up to 72% of mining companies admit to ultilize elationships ith state agencies to access info mation and documents, and 85% eveal that they often have to make "unofficial” payments du ing thei ope ations In

pa ticula , 6% of companies epo ted that “unofficial” payments accounted fo ove 0% of thei total income

Fifthly, mining activities lead to many se ious envi onmental and social impacts Mining activities often equi e big a eas of land and cause la ge-scale and long-lasting envi onmental impacts In the context of limited land, it is ve y difficult to manage

Openness, ransparency and Accountability in tate overnance

Openness, ransparency and Accountability in tate overnance

aste disposal sites safely, implying many isks and incidents, such as a flood in Quang Ninh in late July 20 5 that caused 26 deaths and VND 2,500 billion in damage In most

of the ongoing mining ope ations, envi onmental consequences have mo e and mo e intensely and se iously affected communities

Besides, the mining secto has emained many othe sho tcomings as inapp op iate management, high ate oflabo accidents, lack of ministe ial connection and the engagement of social o ganizations as a monito ing mechannism

2 S m lar t es betwee t e requ reme ts of EITI a d V et am’s pol c es The p inciple of EITI is to disclose info mation about the mining indust y unde the supe vision of the Council of Stakeholde s including ep esentatives f om gove nment, business and social o ganizations EITI equi es the gove nment to disclose evenue collection f om mining companies as ell as the companies disclose payments to the gove nment In 20 6, the Inte national EITI Boa d ackno ledged that its necessa y to p omote a mo e open equi ement of actual beneficia ies and mo e

t anspa ent in the epo ting system of the gove nments and companies To fu the

p omote the p ovisions oft anspa ency, the EĨTĨ Standa ds 20 6 inc eased some mo e

t anspa ency equi ements based on EITfs epo ting mechanisms, hile the count ies implementing EITI can expand the scope of the collecting info mation via available channels of both gove nment and companies as open data systems, ebsites, annual epo ts, online po tals

The co e p inciples of EITI a e info mation disclosu e, c eating an independent mechanism fo monito ing and dialoguesbet een stakeholde s in mining management Vietnam’s cu ent policies contain many specific p ovisions that a e quite simila to EITTs equi ement fo info mation t anspa ency Ho eve , these egulations a e not all-inclusive, and defining in many diffe ent documents, esulting in the failu e to set

up a comp ehensive and synch onized database on the mining secto Additionally, the biggest missing pa t of Vietnam’s policies is an independent mechanism fo monito ing and dialogue bet een stakeholde s, leading to limitations in the legal policy enfo cement Also due to VCCFs assessment in 20 5, Vietnam has many egulations

on t anspa ency fo mining activities in acco dance ith EITI equi ements Ho eve , the implementation of these egulations is not eally st enuous, and beio a e specific comments on each EITI equi ement

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Licensing: At the equest of EITI, the Gove nment must publish info mation about the licensing p ocess such as applicants fo license, licensee, and list of licenses

In Vietnam, befo e a license is issued, anothe step called “mine al planning” ill

be ca ied out by MONRE, MoIT, the Minist y of Const uction and the p ovincial people’s committee Fo mally, these plans must be consulted and idely publicized, but at subnational level, the openness is limited Cu ently, the focal point eceiving application fo licensing is Mon e at national level and Depa tment of Natu al Resou ces and Envi onment (DONRE) at subnational level In fact, MONRE and some

p ovinces have published a list of licenses including info mation about the company, mine location, kinds of mine als, mining output, and license te m Because of these facto s, the disclosu e of licensing- elated info mation as the equest of EITI is not technically difficult

P oduction data: EITI equests to publish ove vie info mation on explo ation activities, total exploitation volume, total expo t volume and co elative values

Cu ently, MONRE and ĐONRE a e the focal points fo issuing explo ation licenses The efo e, it’s not difficult to p ovide an ove vie of explo ation activities Rega ding the total volume of exploitation, companies a e esponsible fo epo ting on the output acco ding to A ticle 55 of the Mine al La 20 0, Dec ee No 58/20 6/ND-CP dated

2 / /20 6 of the Gove nment on detailing the implementation of some a ticles ofthe Mine al La , and Ci cula No 46/20 6/TT-BTNMT dated 27/ 2/20 6 The focal points

fo collecting the epo ts a e also MONRE and DONREs, and the statistics of expo t items, volume and value a e also stipulated in Chapte 6 ofthe Customs La , Chapte 8

of Dec ee No 08/20 5/ND-CP dated 2 /0 /20 5 of the Gove nment p oviding details and implementation measu es ofthe Custom La on custom p ocedu es, examination, monito ing and inspection; and Ci cula No 38/20 5/TT-BTC dated 25/3/20 5 of the Ministe of Finance detailing custom p ocedu es, examination and monito ing, expo t taxes, impo t taxes and management oftaxes of impo t - expo t goods Making the publication of p oduction data is o kable

SOEs: EITI equi es disclosu e of level of state o ne ship, p ofit allocation and budgeta y expenses such as debt payment on behalf of the gove nment In Vietnam, the State's investment in SOEs and the dist ibution of afte -tax p ofits a e in acco dance ith the State Budget La , the Investment La , the Ente p ises La , the

La on Management and Usage of State Capital Invested in Ente p ise’s P oduction

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and T ade Acco dingly, MoF coo dinate ith the o ne ep esentative agencies in financially supe vising the holding company and independent single-membe limited liability company established o assigned by a b anch-managing minist y P ovincial Depa tments of Finance assist Sub-national level People's Committees in financially monito ing and evaluating of p oduction and business efficiency, and epo ting fo ente p ises established by People’s Committees In addition, SOEs a e equi ed to publicize thei financial epo ts, esults of public se vice mission, social elfa e and othe info mations As the esult, the equi ement to disclose info mation has been clea ly specified, and figu ing info mation elated to o ne ship and p ofit allocation

of SOEs is possible

Ma o reve ue collections: The financial system and evenues fo mine al exploitation activities have been clea ly stated in legal documents This is an advantage

to implement EITI Ho eve , the cu ent epo ting fo m does not equi e fully detailed agg egation of data by both evenues and sub ects Some evenues eflect a sha ed ob ect Some evenues a e sepa ately epo ted but not eflected by the ob ect

In addition, VAT is inco po ated fo p oduction and business activities of a company Mean hile, many companies a e multi-secto , making its nea ly impossible to accu ately sepa ate data fo each activity Collecting info mation on co po ate income tax fo mining activities is also difficult because many companies ope ate in multiple indust ies and offset losses and p ofits bet een diffe ent business activities

Local reve ue: The EITI Repo t equi es disclosu e of info mation elated to local di ect evenue as ell as budget allocation f om cent al gove nment to local level Vietnam implements the p inciple of unified budget All evenues must be emitted into the State budget via the State T easu y and managed MoF and financial agencies

of all levels The evenue allocation is clea ly specified in the Budget La and its guiding documents This is an advantage fo implementing the local evenue section

as equi ed by EITI

Reve ue ma ageme t: EITI equi es a desc iption of the allocation of evenues

f om the mining secto ; specify hich evenues f om mining, in cash o in kind, inco po ated in the national budget o not In case of some evenues a e not included

Dec ee NO 8 /20 5/ND-CP dated 8/ /20 5 of the Gove nment on publishing info mation of State ente

p ises; Dec ee No 87/20 5/ND-CP date 06/ 0/20 5 of the Gove nment on monito ing of state investiment capitals into ente p ises and guiding documents

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in the national budget, the allocation should also be clea ly explained along ith the

l kto access the financial epo ts, if anv In Vietnam, all evenues f om mining a e included in the national budget and the allocation of these is in acco dance ith the

20 5 Budget La This is a convenient basis fo EITI implementation

Soc al mpacts: The EITI epo t equi es disclosu e of info mation on the cont ibution ofthe mining secto to the national economy by fiscal yea , on the numbe

of employees in the indust y and social expenditu e equi ed by la In Vietnam, the advantage of this EITI equi ement is the data of economic cont ibution and the numbe of o ke s in the mining indust y have been included in the statistical system

Ho eve , the quality of these data also needs to be evie ed Many definitions, such

as p oduction values, have not been unde stood consistently among diffe ent levels, leading to epo ting disc epancies Mo eove , the specification of mining indust y is employing a lot of seasonal labo To ensu e accu ate statistics, it is necessa y to unify the unde standing and definations such as p oduction value o social expenditu e Additionally, specific c ite ia fo labo statistics is also needed to be developed

3 Difficulties, challenges and solutions

Licensing: Vietnam’s cu ent policies and la s have not equi ed the publication

of mining licenses yet The efo e, the iist of licenses is not updated egula ly The publication of the list of licenses at the local level is ve y limited Info mation about licensing, license t ansfe and license o ne is gene ally not public In addition, Vietnam cu ently has not egulated specific c ite ia to asset the technical capacity and

p oduction technology of conpanies in the p ocess of licensing conside ation

In gene al, the cu ent issuance of mine al licenses does not face any technical difficulties In o de fo the epo t to be fully implemented, Vietnam should mandate additional equi ements ofinfo mation disclosu e ega ding the application p ocess as ell as egulate licensing c ite ia in legal documents

P oduction data: The epo ting on p oduction data is ve y limited Acco ding

to the ep esentative of the Depa tment of Mining Activities Cont ol (unde Mon e), only about 30% ofcompanies execute this obligation In addition, the quality of cu ent statistics is still questionable Info mation on p oduction output is based on data claimed by companies, hile the e is cu ently no c oss-checking mechanism to ensu e the accu acy of these data Data on expo ts is not sufficiently detailed Statistical fo ms

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a e inapp op iate and inconsistent in unde standing The accu acy and timeliness of data agg egation and epo ting f om g ass oots level is still limited

The solution is to evie and edesign the statistical fo m and unify definitions such as p oduction value Besides, it is necessa y to apply the info mation system

to epo t statistics online to ensu e the timeliness Additional penalties should be conside ed in case of ỉate o false epo ting

Revenue: The cu ent epo ting fo m does not equi e fully detailed agg egation

of data by both evenues Some evenues eflect a sha ed ob ect Some evenues a e sepa ately epo ted but not eflected by the ob ect The e is not any specific epo t fo m that equi es sepa ate statistics on envi onmental p otection tax fo miing Collecting info mation on co po ate income tax fo mining activities is also difficult because many companies ope ate in multiple indust ies and offset deficits and p ofits bet een diffe ent business activities

The solution is to edesign the epo t fo ms in a chessboa d fo mat ith columns

as sub ect-based evenue and lines as tax and evenue amounts This ill help agg egate all evenue data by any c ite ia It is also necessa y to conside the budget subdivision

Fo co po ate income tax and VAT, it is possible to conduct data su veys di ectly f om mining fi ms The othe tax can be conducted f om the estimated tu nove atio Vietnam should enhance info mation technology and Inte net in epo ting on budget evenues, and apply st ict penalties fo violations

SOEs: SOEs also face some challenges in the equitization p ocess, such as the high fluctuating level of capital o ne ship in a yea Collecting info mation on loan

t ansfe s and expenditu es of SOEs is difficult because the e is no epo ting fo m and the data may not be fully eflected Mo eove , data on o ne ship in local SOEs may not be p ovided in a timely and accu ately

The solution is to apply computing technology to collection, p ocessing and agg egation of data; design fo ms fo info mation collection and equest to p ovide info mation aligned ith specific equi ements Besides, su veys and investigations can be ca ied out

Local evenue: Vietnam apply the p inciple of one budget and all evenues a e flo ed into the State T easu y and eco ded into the State Budget In addition, the

decent alization of some evenues has been clea ly specified Hiis is an advantage ViATi iT mlpmAntịnơ f-hp c^ tinn nf In al evenue as equi ed bv EITL In p actice, budget management at the commune ìeveỉ may not eflect adequately donations f om companies and o ganizations Ho eve , this evenue is not much and does not account

fo a la ge p opo tion in the commune budget

The above challenge can be solved by st engthening guidance, monito ing, inspection and examination of accountancy at commune level

Revenue management: Basically, evenue collection and allocation in Vietnam

a e ve y clea and accounted into the national budget as equi ed by la The efo e, it

is convenient to collect info mation about evenue collection and allocation A small obstacle is dete mining the ight to allocate some fees and cha ges to the P ovincial People’s Councils can lead to diffe ent atios bet een local levels, and sometimes

to ad ustments, esulting in inacu ate figu es Mo eove , the ate of allocation and

ad ustment is often not published on the ebsite, and is ha d to access

The solution is: (i) Explain clea ly the statistic equi ements; (ii) Using the method of estimating ad ustments based on statistical data; (iii) Request a openness of allocation atios in compliance ith the esolution of the P ovincial People’s Council Social impacts: In Vietnam, many definations such as p oduction values have not been consistent among diffe ent local levels, leading to epo ting disc epancies

Mo eove , the specification of mining indust y is employing a lot of seasonal ỉabo , and this info mation has not been integ ated to the statistical system as ell as not unde stood consistently, causing some difficulties fo info mation collection Actually, the implementation of A ticle 5 of the Mine al La and Decision 2 / /QD-TTg

is ve y limited

To secu e accu ate statistics, it is necessa y to unify the unde standing and clea ify definations such as p oduction value o social expenditu e The e ith, specific

c ite ia fo labo statistics is needed to be developed

4 Recommendations

EITĨ equi es disclosu e of info mation elated to 7 step - licensing, production data, OEs, revenue, local revenue, revenue management and social impacts The policies and management a e clea ly defined in legal documents such as the Mine al

Openness, ransparency and Accountability in tate overnance _

La , the Customs La > the Tax Administ ation La , the Budget La and the guiding documents In fact, some specific equi ements of EITI have been inco po ated in some policies This is conside ed a big advantage fo implementing EITI

Those info mations a e no mainly managed by MoF and Mon e, and epo ts

on licensing, p oduction data, SOEs, local evenue and esou ce management do not encounte ma o technical ba ie s The challenge that Vietnam as ell as othe count ies may encounte is to make the content of the epo t on the ma o evenues

By Decembe 20 8» the e have been 52 count ies implementing EITI al eady

In Southeast Asia, Indonesia, Philippines, Myanma and East Timo a e all EITI count ies The efo e, technical issues a e not the main ba ie s fo EĨTI Vietnam needs to see EITI as a tool to suppo t management, imp ove the statistical system and cont ibute to the efo m of the mining indust y As all othe count ies, the Vietnam’s focal point should be open and engage othe stakeholde s in the decision-making p ocess on EITI implementation We, VMC, also aise the some specific ecommendations as belo ;

Vietnam needs to quickly evie and e-evaluate the situation of the mining indust y, set a long-te m st ategy and o ientations to a ds EITI implementation, putting a deadline fo Minist y of Indust y and T ade (MoIT) to EITI implementation evie The gove nmanet shoud also ask othe elevant stakeholde s to study and

p epa e fo EITI, at the same time

MoIT should accele ate the p ocess of oining and implementing EITI, ith the

pa ticipation of othe stakeholde s to ensu e independence in the decision-making

p ocess

Hie gove nment should conside s itching the count y focal point fo EITI implementation to othe mo e app op iate agencies as MoF o Mon e, especially hen these t o agencies a e managing the ma o ity of info mation and data equi ed by EITI

REFERENCES MONRE (20 4) Report on mining activities 2013

EITỈ (20 ) EI I principles 2011 Available at: http://natu e o g vn/vn/20 2/ 0/bo-quy-tac-eiti-phien-ban-20 /

Openness, ransparency and Accountability in tate overnance