Argentina: Scoping study
Executive summary
This report analyses the legal and institutional aspects of the disclosure of beneficial ownership (hereinafter BO) in Argentina, taking into account compliance with Requirement 2.5 of the Standard approved by the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), of which Argentina has been a member since 2019. The requirement in question is chiefly based on the creation of a register accessible to the public of BO of corporate entities that acquire or have an interest in acquiring a license or contract for exploration or production of oil, gas or minerals, including the identity of its (their) beneficial owner(s), the degree of shares of ownership and details on how ownership or control is exercised.
The analysis is based on the global Opening Extractives programme, jointly led by EITI and Open Ownership (OO), which seeks to move towards beneficial ownership transparency in extractive industries, driving implementation of the reforms necessary to achieve it by making technical assistance, resources and institutional support available to implementing countries.
Initially recommendations and proposals are set forth that seek to offer alternatives for action to progress towards compliance with Requirement 2.5 of the EITI Standard concerning the oil, mining and gas industries, and eventually, in a scenario of maximum implementation, sketching guidelines for expansion to all other economic sectors.
It is important to point out that during the course of this study it was ascertained that the Registers of Mineral Investments, Petroleum Companies and operators of exempt fuels, or those with differential treatment due to geographical destination, are not included in the special registers for these activities that the Federal Administration of Public Revenues (AFIP) maintains. This finding should be a priority for corrective action, as this report will recommend and detail below.
For the drafting of this report, a survey was taken of the national and provincial regulatory framework, eight semi-structured interviews of key actors were conducted, and systematic dialogues were undertaken with the Open Ownership team to provide follow-up on the study. A map was drawn up of the key actors in the decision-making process, including their interactions, resources, interests, incentives and influences.