DRC: Consultant to Conduct Audit and Evaluation Research on Extractive Contract Disclosure Policies and Practices

Sep 20, 2020 | Natural Resource Governance Institute
View Original

NRGI is a non-governmental organization dedicated to helping communities and nations benefit from their countries’ endowments of oil, gas, and minerals. For more information about NRGI, please refer to this short introduction and our 2020-2025 Strategy.

The DRC is a member of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). Since 2007, the DRC has published reports including payments made by extractive companies and those received by the State, and detailing contextual information ( on the legal framework, contracts, licenses, the sector's contribution to the national economy, etc. ).

The DRC acquired the status of a country compliant with EITI standards in July 2014. This compliance was declared in relation to the EITI requirements 2011 edition and coincided with the adoption in 2013 by the EITI Board of a new enactment of the EITI rules, called the “new EITI Standard” as revised and completed in 2016 and 2019 respectively. The country underwent its second review on the basis of the requirements of the 2016 version. At the end of this review, the Board of Directors EITI on October 16, 2019, declared that the country has made "satisfactory progress", and that the DRC should undertake 13 corrective actions.

These measures concern in particular the requirements related to the keeping and publication of the register of licenses (2.2 & 2.3), the participation of the State in the sector including a description of the conditions associated with the participation of the State or of companies of Status (2.6), full disclosure of all significant payment streams (4.1) etc. The issue of contract disclosure is related to the implementation of the above corrective measures, and even to others such as comprehensive income disclosure. 

Along with the corrective measures, the edition of the 2019 EITI Standard now includes the requirement for member countries to obligatorily disclose contracts signed or amended from January 1, 2021. In this context of this consultancy, the concept of “contract” or “License” should be understood and / or interpreted within the meaning of Requirement 2.4 . The International Secretariat has published a checklist for integrating measures related to contract transparency into work plans.

Parallel to and / or independent of EITI requirements, the DRC has, since 2011 adopted a government policy of mandatory disclosure of contracts as reinforced to date by the hydrocarbons law and the revised mining code promulgated in August 2015 and March 2018

From the above, an assessment, on the one hand, of the implementation of the government contract disclosure policy, and on the other hand, of the transparency of contracts on the governance of the sector could help stakeholders, particularly the Multi-stakeholder Group to address a number of corrective measures related to the disclosure of contracts. This assessment is among the priority agenda of stakeholders, including the Multiparty Group in the context of the implementation of corrective measures, and more generally of the national priorities of the DRC.

Contract transparency is a crucial challenge in the governance of extractive resources in the DRC. Both sectoral laws and contracts contain terms whose execution positively or negatively influences the good governance of resources.

Progress has been made in recent years in terms of the disclosure of contracts and in terms of legislation aimed at strengthening and / or reaffirming the government's commitment in this area. Since 2016, several mining and oil contracts as well as their annexes have been published in an adapted format on the Resourcecontracts portal thanks to the partnership between the Ministry of Mines and NRGI. However, the full and regular disclosure of contracts within the legal deadlines remains a challenge for the DRC. Numerous mining and petroleum contracts and / or their amendments and annexes remain undisclosed, and it even appears difficult to know exactly how many of its documents have not been disclosed.

From the above, the present study aims at the following overall objectives:

• Contribute to the DRC's efforts to address the corrective measures recommended by the EITI Board through an assessment of the government policy on contract disclosure as well as the gaps between it and practice
• Strengthen the understanding of the Multiparty Group and stakeholders on the relevance of contract transparency through an analysis of the impact of contract transparency on the governance of extractive resources

Functions and responsibilities 

The consultant is required to conduct research and write a report that must systematically and methodically:

• Describe and assess the DRC's policies on the disclosure of extractive contracts, their implementation as well as any gaps between them and practices;
• Include an assessment of the publication platforms used (accessibility, ease of use, frequency of updates, etc.) 
• Draw up an inventory of signed and unpublished contracts in the mining and hydrocarbons sector. This includes producing a list of signed and unpublished contracts in both sectors;
• Analyze the convergences and discrepancies between the contract disclosure policies put in place by the DRC and international good practices in contract transparency;
• Analyze the role and potential impact of disclosure / transparency or not of contracts in the governance of the mining and hydrocarbon sectors;
• Provide practical recommendations to stakeholders to improve both extractive contract disclosure policies and practices in the DRC in view of the implementation of EITI requirement 2.4

Deliverables

The following main products / deliverables are expected from the researcher:

1. A methodological research plan is produced, discussed and validated by NRGI in collaboration with the EITI-DRC Technical Secretariat
2. A draft report addressing the concerns raised above is produced, submitted to NRGI to stakeholders including the EITI Technical Secretariat, and discussed with stakeholders. This would include presenting its initial findings so that feedback, comments and suggestions from stakeholders would probably be ideal.
3. A final report incorporating comments

Functional skills

Skills and Abilities :

• Mastery of mining and hydrocarbon legislation in the Democratic Republic of Congo;
• In-depth knowledge of the Congolese mining and / or petroleum sector and the institutional and political context of the country;
• Sufficient knowledge of the EITI-DRC process and its requirements;
• Proven knowledge of the international context of extractive industries and contract transparency;
• Mastery of the problems and issues related to the disclosure of mining and oil contracts;
• Interest in good governance or previous work on projects aimed at improving transparency and accountability in the extractive sector.
• Ability to meet binding deadlines;
• Autonomy, sense of initiative and anticipation;
• Very good analytical skills and scientific rigor;
• Strong adaptability and communication skills;
• Very good capacity for synthesis and writing in French;
• Excellent command of computer tools;
• Ability to conduct very high quality documentary research;
• Responsiveness to requests for information and excellent communication skills
• Independence from government and extractive companies.

Qualifications required

Education

• At least Bachelor (Bac + 5) or equivalent in disciplines related to consultancy. This is for example a Master or Doctorate in Law, International Relations, international development, political science, economics or similar disciplines.

Experience

• Have already participated in more or less two research projects in the sector of governance of extractive resources;
• Have experience working with an international NGO working in the extractive sector in the DRC;
• Proven knowledge of the mining, oil and gas sector
• Specific experience on the issue of transparency of mining, gas and oil contracts would be a solid asset.

Languages ​​required

• Have a mastery of spoken and written French. Knowledge of English to use documents written in this language would be an asset .

How to apply

Applications should be submitted by means of a cover letter and CV. Applications will be evaluated on an ongoing basis.

The following elements thus constitute the said file:

• A signed cover letter not exceeding one page and clearly indicating the proposed costs for carrying out the consultancy. The consultancy costs should not include the costs associated with any travel that would be directly covered by NRGI.
• A curriculum vitae presenting similar past experiences (three pages maximum).

Duration of call for applications

The files will be processed gradually. Thus, interested applicants are encouraged to submit as soon as possible.