Kenya’s Ministry of Mining is building capacity, regulations and frameworks to manage its emerging mineral sector more effectively and sustainably. At this early stage, the Ministry has the opportunity to plan governance and management of the country’s mineral endowment in ways that will contribute to broad-based economic development and poverty reduction. Establishing mineral audit capacity is an important component in the assessment of regulatory and contractual compliance by mining companies, especially in terms of public revenue payments and enabling reliable public information on sector activities.
CIRDI assembled a technical team to conduct a desktop study and field mission to compile a needs assessment on mineral auditing in Kenya. Meetings held with officials from the Ministry of Mining, relevant government departments and agencies, and other stakeholders provided an understanding of the following topics:
Following the needs assessment phase, the technical team worked with the Kenya Ministry of Mining to generate an action plan for developing robust mineral audit capacity that would provide oversight of key transactions and enhance the transparency of the sector overall through timely and reliable information.
The project was aligned with the Kenyan government’s objective of generating revenues through the extractive sector to help provide inclusive social programs and services for its citizens. In particular, the project aimed to:
Gender
Environment
Governance
The final report, including needs assessment and action plan, was delivered to the Government of Kenya in April 2016. Following this project, CIRDI is developing a working paper on international lessons in mineral auditing. CIRDI continues to work with developing country governments on advisory services and capacity building initiatives related to the fiscal governance and sustainable management of natural resources.
This project provided tools to improve the capacity of the Kenyan government to audit natural resource sectors, especially mineral exploration and mining. It produced a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing fiscal governance of the Kenyan mineral sector and recommended concrete steps for the improvement of mineral auditing.
