A meeting of the Validation Working group, established in order to proceed with Validation process, comprising of nine persons equally represented by the EITI stakeholders (Government of Azerbaijan, Extractive industry companies, and Coalition of Non-governmental organizations) was held on November 18, 2008. Seven companies (Validators) - Coffey Int. Dev. Ltd., ECON, The IDL Group, Goldwyn Int Strategies, Hart Nurse Limited, Oxford Policy Management, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Accountability, approved by the International EITI Board to validate EITI process, were invited to bid. Four companies - Coffey International Development, Goldwyn International, Hart Group and ECON sent proposals for the bidding.
Coffey International Development was selected to exercise this process in Azerbaijan following the unanimous decision of the Selection Group.
Goldwyn International and Hart Group companies took the second and third places accordingly.
At the 3rd International EITI Board meeting held in Oslo on 27 September 2007, 15 countries including Azerbaijan obtained an EITI Candidate status. Based on the decision of The EITI International Board Candidate countries willing to become an EITI Compliant country should pass throw Validation process. Azerbaijan has an officially started the Validation process in 2008.