Transcript Heinrich Brüngger Institutional and legal framework of the national statistical system: the national system of official statistics Management seminar on global assessment Yalta, 23.25 September.

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Heinrich Brüngger
Institutional and legal framework of the
national statistical system: the national
system of official statistics
Management seminar on global assessment
Yalta, 23.25 September 2009
Session 6
Define the limits of the national
statistical system: institutionally

Who is within the national statistical system:
◦ NSI
◦ Other recognised producers of official statistics
◦ Statistical Council or Committees with strong
representation of users if foreseen in the statistical
law (or census law)
◦ Any coordination body between producers of official
statistics (whether foreseen in the law itself or only at
a lower legal level)
◦ Any subgroup the Statistical Council or Committee
may set up
◦ Any project group a producer may set up (normally
without explicit legal basis)
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Other recognised producers


With the possible exception of the National Bank
(not part of government), they should not be
listed in the statistical law itself, but only in the
statistical programmes
Before being included in the statistical
programmes, candidates for other producers have
to demonstrate and be certified that they are able
and willing to produce and disseminate official
statistics according to the international standards
(fundamental principles/code of practice as well
as applicable sectoral standards)
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Other recognised producers (ctd.)


It is an important part of the coordination
task of the NSI when preparing the statistical
programmes to assess whether other
producers fulfil or continue to fulfil the
prerequisites
Recognised producers have to assign their
official statistics activities to one
organisational sub-unit: only such sub-units
are part of the statistical system, not the rest
of the organisations (ministries) to which
they belong
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Legal consequences of being
recognised as producer of official
statistics
Activities of official statistics as listed in the
medium-term or annual programmes can only be
assigned to NSI or a recognised producer
 Confidential data can be exchanged more easily
within the statistical system (the statistical law
specifies the rules) than flow from an agency
within the system to a user outside the system
 All producers have to strictly observe the
fundamental principles, notably confidentiality,
impartiality, and the principle of simultaneous
access for all users

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Coordination of the national
statistical system


For both efficiency and credibility considerations,
small countries (<30 mio. population) should
concentrate as many activities of official statistics
as possible in the NSI, and not spread the various
scarce skills over too many institutions. This is
especially valid for statistical surveys
Arrangements should be found (if necessary
through a explicit article in the statistical law) that
allows the NSI to be partially financed from
another governmental agency for selected data
collection activities of official statistics for the
results of which it is the main user, and if this user
agrees that all principles of official statistics
should be fully respected
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Coordination (ctd.)
The NSI has to be the main coordinator of the
system by law, with instruments mentioned in the
law, notably the preparation and evaluation of
statistical programmes and the setting of
standards for the whole system by the chief
statistician
 The statistical infrastructure set up by the NSI
should be available for use by other producers.
 NSI should also be able to give advice on all
aspects of official statistics, and build up a basic
knowledge also in areas that are in the
responsibility of other producers

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Institutional aspects: NSI
The NSI is the only government agency whose
core task is official statistics
 In order to be credible in this exclusive focus on
statistics, the NSI should not have any
responsibility for non-statistical activities (such as
the maintenance of administrative registers)
 Statistical activities outside official statistics can
be carried out by the NSI on the basis of
transparent rules, cost reimbursement, and clear
distinction in the status of the output from the
main output (results of official statistics)

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What is official statistics?
Activities of official statistics: what is in the statistical
programme
 Results of official statistics: outcome of one or more
activity of official statistics that:

◦ Are produced and disseminated with respect of all
fundamental principles
◦ Are based on conceptual decisions taken by the
international or national community of official statistics
(and not imposed by a single user)
◦ Gives a numerical estimation of a publicly relevant mass
characteristic that allows comparisons over time and
between groups/regions/sectors/countries
◦ Have followed rules of quality control during the whole
production process
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What is not a result of official
statistics

Not all government activities implying number-crunching are
official statistics. Examples that are not:
◦ Reporting of administrative units about their activities (they may
be an input into official statistics)
◦ Ad hoc tabulation of basic data according to the specifications of
one specific user (may become part of the core results in a later
period if in line with standard definitions and of interest to the
public)
◦ Results generated by researchers with microdata obtained from
the NSI
◦ Transformation of results of official statistics according to the
needs of a specific user (e.g. for analytical or forecasting
purposes)
◦ Use of official statistics in models that include assumptions that
cannot be checked periodically against independent empirical
data
◦ Opinion polls or ad hoc surveys
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NSI involvement in statistical
activities outside official statistics
NSI may (within the limits of the law) give access for
researchers to microdata generated by activities of
official statistics for their own statistical activities
 NSI may be more involved in such activities by
contributing its know-how, if it does not undermine
the credibility for official statistics. The responsibility
of the NSI must be clearly limited, and the status of
the output has to be different
 In the same way, NSI may cooperate with research
organisations
 Some official statistics have started as research
activities, and only be taken over by official statistics
once the methodology was proven to be sufficiently
robust and accurate

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System-wide responsibility of NSI
The NSI is only agency that should have a keen
interest in making the national statistical work as
one system under common principles; resources
have to be devoted to this task
 The user wants to have results that he/she can
trust because it is part of official statistics (quality
label); the general user should not have to worry
about the division of work within the system
 The chief statistician bears the ultimate systemwide responsibility for the fitness of use of the
released results and the professional adequacy of
the underlying processes

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 Thank
you for your attention
 Questions and comments are
encouraged
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