OSI DELEGATION MEETS WITH ARAB PARLIAMENTARIANS AGAINST CORRUPTION HEAD

March 18, 2006

Dr. Nasser Al-Sane, deputy president of the Global Organization for Parliamentarians against Corruption and head of the Arab Parliamentarians against Corruption (APAC), met Saturday, March 18 with Mr. Anthony Richter and Mr. Gregor Meiering from the Open Society Institute in New York. The OSI is primarily funded by the American businessman, George Soros.

The OSI, renowned for its reports on democracy and transparent societies, is currently focused on transparency in the oil and gas producing countries, and the extent of data access allowed to agents monitoring that sector.

Dr. Al-Sane said the state of Kuwait allows the Audit Bureau ("diwan al muhasaba") and various parliament committees access to oil industry data. For example, the budgetary committee oversees final accounts of the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation and its subsidiary companies.

There are also specialized parliament committees, such as the committee for the investigation of Halliburton sales, as well as the monetary and economic affairs committee that is studying the North Kuwait oil fields project. These are monitoring tools, in addition to questioning by parliament members for information on the oil industry sector.

Dr. Al-Sane told the visiting delegation that the monitoring mechanism in the state of Kuwait enjoys more transparency than others in the region. However, the parliament consistently demands even more transparency, especially as the Kuwait Constitution provides guarantees that the state's natural resources will be dealt with from a strategic perspective.

The OSI showed interest in cooperating with APAC in developing its monitoring and transparency capabilities. It has published a number of studies, such as Follow the Money, which is targeted to civil society organizations; Covering Oil, aimed at journalists; a third book for policy makers and a fourth for investors. All of these publications have been translated into Arabic.

Dr. Al-Sane invited the OSI representatives to the APAC general conference that is to be hosted by the Moroccan Parliament during the month of May, bearing in mind that the OSI has adopted an initiative entitled "Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative," to which no Arab oil, gas or mineral company has subscribed so far. A number of international companies have joined the initiative, and it is therefore essential to subscribe to it in order to encourage companies in the Arab region to have transparent dealings with the public, and with parliaments concerning the oil, gas and mineral sectors.