Recommendations of the Independent Administrator

Project term: Mine site and extraction royalties

As described in detail under Selection of payment flows, the project term for the mine site and extraction royalties is defined on the basis of the payment obligation to the respective government agency. In practice, these are the payments to the mining authorities of the federal states. The corresponding payments were published as part of the 2024 D-EITI reporting.

With regard to the mine site and extraction royalties, the EITI Standard leaves room for interpretation. In accordance with section 4.7, the project term could be defined even more granularly at the level of the licensed or approved field.

Some of the participating companies, such as Harbour Energy Germany GmbH, Hamburg (formerly: Wintershall Dea Deutschland GmbH), already report on this level as part of the data enquiry or payment reports. A corresponding entry field is provided in the enquiry form, but is not filled by all companies.

We therefore recommend that all participating companies be made aware of this information as part of the forthcoming data enquiry and that additional information be requested if necessary. If all companies submitted complete reports, payments could be shown both on the basis of government agencies and at the level of the licensed or approved field.

Municipalities’ process listing

For the fifth D-EITI report, the trade tax collection process was further analysed by means of a questionnaire developed by the Independent Administrator, Grant Thornton AG. The questionnaire was sent to the 20 municipalities that received the highest trade tax payments from the companies participating in the D-EITI in the 2020 reporting year.

In the following reporting years, there were only minor changes per reporting within this group of 20 municipalities. However, when viewed over the entire period, these changes collectively led to a noticeable adjustment within the group of municipalities under consideration.

In the Independent Administrator’s view, the information available for the 2024 risk assessment remains sufficient, taking into account the agreed terms of the engagement with Deloitte. This assessment is based not only on the results of the municipal survey but also on supplementary information, in particular the analysis of publicly available documents, relevant audit reports, and interviews with members of the multi-stakeholder group (MSG). Furthermore, it should be noted that the municipalities with the highest trade tax revenues remained largely unchanged over the period under review.

Changes in the group of relevant municipalities are again expected for the 2025 reporting. In addition, the surveys conducted to date were carried out several years ago. From the Independent Administrator’s perspective, this could limit the timeliness and relevance of the information provided for the next reporting period.

We therefore recommend that, as part of the 2025 reporting process, a new standardized survey be conducted at least for municipalities newly included in the reporting group. This would help ensure that the information remains up-to-date and increase the scope of coverage.

Water abstraction fee

Payment flow quantification

The water abstraction fee generally represents a payment flow between companies and government agencies. Due to Germany’s federal structure, as well as the varying fee rates and exemptions across the federal states, payments for the majority of participating companies fall below the specified materiality threshold of EUR 100,000 per government agency. For this reason, the water abstraction fee has not yet been disclosed as a material payment flow in the context of the D-EITI reporting. However, a comprehensive overview of the legal framework, the significance of the water abstraction fee, and selected payments¹ is already provided in the context-based reporting in the chapter Water abstraction fee.

Based on the ongoing discussions within the MSG, the Independent Administrator conducted further analyses regarding the water abstraction fee in 2026 for the 2024 reporting. The results confirm the observation already presented in the contextual report that, in individual cases, payments exceed the materiality threshold of EUR 100,000 per government agency. Furthermore, the total of these identified payments exceeds the total material payment flow from lease payments in the 2024 reporting.

To date, there has been no systematic collection of the water abstraction fee payments as part of the D-EITI data collection process. Quantifying the total amount of payments for water abstraction fees based on the published payment reports is only possible to a limited extent. Due to country-specific differences among government payees, it cannot be ruled out in all cases that the payments recorded as going to individual government agencies may also be attributable to other payment flows. Therefore, the exact amount of the payment flow cannot be determined at this time.

We recommend including water extraction fees in the data request from the Independent Administrator as part of the 2025 reporting process, thereby creating a reliable data foundation for the MSG’s decision.

Activity test

During the MSG meeting in March 2026, the question was raised as to whether water abstraction fees paid by the companies under review should be partially attributed to activities that do not fall within the reporting companies’ extractive business operations. This issue has not yet been conclusively resolved within the MSG, but from the Independent Administrator’s perspective, it represents a significant factor in assessing the materiality of the payment flow.

We recommend clarifying the sectoral classification of the water abstraction fees for the identified payments, for example, in consultation with the participating companies concerned.  On this basis, the MSG should decide whether to include water abstraction fees as a material payment flow in D-EITI reporting and transparently document this decision.

¹ Based on the published payment reports of the participating companies.