Public Finance Monitoring Center
November 20 - Inglab Akhmedov and Keith Clark said Thursday that it's important for the Azeri government to promote transparency as it applies to the design and implementation of the government budget in Azerbaijan.
Speaking on the second day of a three-day workshop for reporters on covering oil wealth and the impact it has on development, Clark stressed the need to promote good governance and modernized procurement systems as well as civil service reform. He also stressed the importance of transparency in government accounting procedures and in the management of public expenditures.
"The publics' acceptance and trust in a government's actions to implement reforms and new policy initiatives will hinge on the openness of the fiscal process," he said.
Clark is the resident budget advisor from the US Department of the Treasury to Azerbaijan's Ministry of Finance. He has over 30 years experience in state and local government in the US.
The event is being organized by the Initiative for Policy Dialogue, an international network of economists based at Columbia University in New York and by the Public Finance Monitoring Center in Baku.
Akhmedov, the director of the Public Finance Monitoring Center, also outlined some of the advantages and disadvantages that oil wealth presents to the Azeri economy. Inflows of wealth can be beneficial but side effects can be the strengthening of the Azeri currency and the growth of corruption, he warned.
"The one-sided development of the economy, based upon the oil sector could prove problematic for Azerbaijan. But matters would be worse if we didn't have this great natural wealth" Ahkmedov said.
Other speakers in the workshop were Nobel Laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz, Sabit Bagirov, chairman of the Azerbaijan office of Transparency International, Azeri economist Nazim Imanov. Some 25 Azeri and Georgian reporters attended the event. The discussions were moderated by Professor Sahin Alpay of Istanbul's Bahceshehir University and journalist Andrew Finkel, also based in Istanbul.
The conference is being held to help reporters enhance their coverage of the effects that resource wealth can have on Azerbaijan and to raise awareness about the need for improved transparency and corporate governance. Managing oil wealth is a challenge for developing and transition countries that are lucky enough to have these resources. Nations need to decide how they can deal with influxes of large revenues without producing distortions of income inequality, corruption, misallocation of resources and macroeconomic imbalances such as high inflation and low growth. Azerbaijan is a test case and could become a role model for other countries with large energy resources depending on how its leadership decides to handle the challenge.
Reporters attending the workshop will participate in discussions about the effect that oil wealth can have on other countries and learn about how other countries have coped with these development challenges.
The event was being held on November 19, 20, 21 in Baku. The event is part of a series of workshops and meetings being planned by Caspian Revenue Watch. CRW is part of the Open Society Institute and in June released a report "Caspian Oil Windfalls: Who Will Benefit?" (The report can be found at www.eurasianet.org/caspian.oil.windfalls)
The Public Finance Monitoring Center was responsible for organizing the logistics of the meeting and inviting local reporters to participate. IPD journalism training director Anya Schiffrin prepared the program, invited the guest speakers and will be responsible for follow-up activities. IPD has a website for journalists who cover finance and economics which can be found on www.journalismtraining.net
The event is being funded by the OSCE, the Open Society Institute (courtesy of the East-East Program and the Network Media Program) and the Initiative for Policy Dialogue.
