REVENUE WATCH REPORTS

Follow the Money: A Guide to Monitoring Budgets and Oil and Gas Revenues
Based on a workshop co-organized by OSI's Revenue Watch program, this November 2004 guide provides practical information on how citizens of resource-rich countries can become effective monitors of government earnings and expenditures.

Caspian Oil Windfalls: Who Will Benefit?
The Open Society Institute has released a report calling for accountability, transparency, and public oversight in the oil and natural gas industries of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.

The report, Caspian Oil Windfalls: Who Will Benefit? urges foreign oil companies, their home governments, and international financial institutions to promote good governance and democracy in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan to ensure that petroleum revenues generate social prosperity and stable governments.

GLOBAL WITNESS REPORTS

Time for Transparency: Coming clean on oil, mining and gas revenues, from Global Witness

TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL REPORTS

Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index 2005
More than two-thirds of the 159 nations surveyed in Transparency International's 2005 Corruption Perceptions Index, released in October, scored less than 5 out of a clean score of 10, indicating serious levels of corruption in a majority of the countries surveyed.

Transparency International's Global Corruption Report 2005
This March 2005 report shows how corruption in the construction sector undermines economic development, and threatens to hamstring post-conflict reconstruction in Iraq and beyond.

Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index 2004
Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index 2004, released in October, ranks 146 countries and finds that most oil-producing nations are prone to high corruption.

REVENUE WATCH PARTNER ORGANIZATIONS

Legal Remedies for the Resource Curse
The Justice Initiative released this report assessing the availability of legal remedies for addressing corrupt practices in the natural resource industries on September 6, 2005. Legal Remedies for the Resource Curse is a digest of practical experience in using law to combat corruption across jurisdictions.

Kazakhstan's Transparency Initiative: Curing the "Oil Curse"
Deloitte audit partner for the Caspian Region Andrew Coxshall discusses Kazakhstan's recent efforts to strengthen transparency in this September 7, 2005 report.

Following the Money 101: A Primer on Money-Trail Investigations
The Coalition for International Justice created this useful primer on investigating the financial networks supporting corruption and crime in February 2004.
   • Appendix: Corporate Registry Guide

Opening Budgets to Public Understanding and Debate: Results from 36 Countries
Revenue Watch partner The International Budget Project developed the Open Budget Questionnaire to evaluate public access to budget information and the openness of the budget process from the perspective of civil society organizations. This 2004 reporty analyzes the responses to the questionnaire.

Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) Newsletter (PDF file)
The third edition of the EITI newsletter was released in September 2004.

Comments on the EBRD Country Strategy for Kazakhstan ( Word document)
On 20 August, members of the coalition of NGOs "Oil Revenues - Under Public Oversight!" submitted their comments to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) regarding the Bank's country strategy for Kazakhstan, which the Bank is currently revising.

Kazakhstan Revenue Watch Forum: Models of Effective Parliamentary Oversight of the State Budget
On 8 April 2004, the Soros Foundation Kazakhstan within its Kazakhstan Revenue Watch program held the Soros Open Forum "Models of effective parliamentary oversight of the state budget". During the three-hour long discussion, the Forum participants debated about the required degree of legislature's involvement into the budget process and the role of parliament in the governance structure of Kazakhstan. They also focused on the issues of transparency of the state revenues and stressed the need for a stronger parliamentary control over the National Fund.

Transparency of Resource Revenues discussed at World Economic Forum, Almaty, April 2002

Oxfam Report on the Extractive Sectors and the Poor (October 2001) (PDF file)

Conflict, Security, and Development Group: Report on monitoring off-budget military expenditures (PDF file)

Friends of the Earth memo on oil funds (PDF file)