Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia

WORKSHOP ON NSI INTERNAL & EXTERNAL ORGANISATION WITH FOCUS ON ADMINISTRATIVE DATA AND REGISTERS

Coordination of the NSS with ONAs

Veselinka Škiljević

Tirana, 5-6 July 2018

www.stat.gov.rs / stat@stat.gov.rs

• Specialized professional organization defined by Law on Ministries

•According to Official Statistics Law:

main producer and disseminator of official statistics

authorized professional agent, organizer and coordinator of the system of official statistics of the Republic of Serbia

represents the Serbian official statistics in the international statistical system.

Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia

www.stat.gov.rs / stat@stat.gov.rs

•The long-term strategy of SORS, as well as of Eurostat, is based on the maximum use of data from administrative sources.

•Part of the strategy of the Serbian Government, as well as of the European Commission, is:

to reduce the administrative burden, which should lead to a general rationalization of work processes

creating a more favorable business environment by minimizing administrative procedures and bureaucratic obligations.

Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia

www.stat.gov.rs / stat@stat.gov.rs

•Built on the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics and the European Statistics Code of Practice

• Provides legal frame for:production and dissemination of official statistics,organization of the official statistical system,role of Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia status and role of Statistical council,Programme and Plan of official statistics,data collection, processing and storage,statistical registers,dissemination,confidentiality andinternational cooperation.

Official Statistics Law

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• The activities of official statistics are based on the five-year statistical program and on annual implementation plans:

• Programme of official statistics over the period 2016 – 2020 and

• Strategy of official statistics development in the Republic of Serbia over the period of 2016 – 2020, as integral part of the Programme

• Plan of official statistics for 2018

• Five-year Programme and annual plans are prepared in close relation to the European statistical system and Eurostat documents (Extension of the European statistical programme (ESP) to 2018-2020, European Statistics Annual Work Programme and Statistical requirements compendium).

Programme, Strategy and Plan of official statistics

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Programme of official statistics over the period 2016 – 2020 includes:

•Development strategy for official statistics to be applied in the Republic of Serbia for a five-year period;

• List of the expected results of official statistics by areas, data on the period of their release and level of harmonization with international standards;

•Review of the most important infrastructure and development activities;

• Statistics’ producer in charge and

• Information on expected problems.

Programme of Official Statistics

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• Strategy of Official Statistics Development in the Republic of Serbia over the period of 2016 – 2020 is an integral part of the Programme

Fundamental strategic objectives:

•Development of the official statistics system and harmonization of statistical standards and practice with international standards and practice, primarily with those of the European Union

• Improvement of the production of statistical data with high level of international comparability of results

• Improvement of the cooperation and coordination within the official statistics system of the Republic of Serbia

• Strengthening the confidence in official statistics through the cooperation with data providers and data users and

• Engagement of adequate staff in the official statistics system.

Development strategy

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Strategic goals

In May 2017, the Government of the Republic of Serbia adopted the document Official statistics development strategy and modernization of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia. The realization of the following basic strategic directions, i.e. goals is foreseen:

•Accomplished alignment with the European Statistical System,

•Developed methodological and analytical sector,

•Developed system of registers,

•Applied modern technologies,

• Staff new structures and advanced professional training, and

• Ensured professional independence.

www.stat.gov.rs / stat@stat.gov.rs

Plan of official statistics for 2018 contains:

•Detailed elaboration of the Programme;

• List of statistical surveys that shall be conducted, including the information on whether they are compulsory or not;

• List of administrative sources and list of data obtained by constant monitoring and observation method that are used in official statistics;

•Development activities defined in the Programme.

• In 2018, the total number of 393 surveys or other activities are planned, from which 303 are in charge of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia (77%)

Plan of official statistics

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The system of official statistics of the Republic of Serbia includes, as authorized producers of official statistics, the following agents:

• Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia

•National Bank of Serbia

• City administration of Belgrade, for the territory of the City of Belgrade

•Other authorized producers of official statistics, listed in the five-year statistical Programme.

The system of official statistics of the Republic of Serbia

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• Institute of Public Health of Serbia “Dr Milan Jovanovic Batut”

•Ministry of the Interior

• Pension and Disability Insurance Fund of the Republic of Serbia

• Serbian Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA)

•Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection

•National Health Insurance Fund

•National Library of Serbia

•Ministry of Finance

•Ministry of Justice

•Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development

•Republic Institute for Social Protection

•Center for Study in Cultural Development

Other producers of official statistics (OPOS)

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• Programme of official statistics over the period 2016 – 2020 includes a largenumber of 31 other producers of official statistics.

• It is also obvious that some of them do not meet some of the criteria (they areonly administrative data providers), so they should not be considered asproducers of official statistics.

•Next tasks: to define Procedure for establishing other producer of officialstatistics, to distinguish OPOS and ONAs.

•OPOS are public authorities responsible to produce statistics on areas set out innational legislation on their organization and functioning among the otherspecific activity.

OPOS and Other National Authorities (ONAs)

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Criteria to define them:

• Exercise public authority

• Public authority enshrined in legislation

•Have the legal mandate/responsibility

• Production of statistics to be a regular task

•Compile data from relevant sources

• Provide publishable output

• Transmit data to international organizations

•Are not just providing information to produce statistics

OPOS

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• SORS has been taking significant efforts to improve and enhance its status, as the main producer and coordinator of official statistics, through intensive communications and cooperation with other state authorities.

• SORS promotes the use of common standards and practices within NSS.

•All producers of official statistics should follow uniform, internationally agreed concepts, definitions, methods.

•Main instrument: statistical work programme.

Coordination of the NSS

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• Preparation of the statistical five-year Programme

• Preparation of the statistical annual Plan

•Agreements / memoranda / protocols

•Working groups with the producers

•Meetings of all producers of official statistics

Coordination instruments

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Having in mind that coordination role means set of activities, which should ensure that different state authorities meet the relevant quality standard, especially those which contribute to the development, production and dissemination of ES, SORS initiated and carried out some activities in recent period.

As precondition for successful implementation of the coordination role is establishing interactive and permanent cooperation with state authorities.

For this purpose, as well as to increase use of administrative data, and to start talking about needs of standardization, first interdepartmental meeting was organized in October 2016 on which 250 representatives of almost all state bodies, including authorized producers of official statistics, took part.

Coordination of the NSS with ONAs

www.stat.gov.rs / stat@stat.gov.rs

•A workshop on improving data exchange among state authorities was organized in April 2017, with the aim of upgrading data management system in public administration and improving exchange of data.

• First meeting of all producers of official statistics was held in November 2017. Meeting was attended by all producers of official statistics listed in listed in the five-year statistical Programme. SORS promotes use of common standards, practices and classifications.

•Apart these 3 significant meetings which gathered most of state authorities, SORS organized a lot of bilateral meetings.

Coordination of the NSS with ONAs

www.stat.gov.rs / stat@stat.gov.rs

The first meeting with authorized producers of official statistics, whose topic was „Strategic Directions of the Development of Official Statistics” was held in November 2017.

The objectives of the meeting were:

•Advancement of the information exchange among authorized producers of official statistics,

•Consideration of standardization improvement of the system of official statistics and

•Harmonization of the methodology for production of the statistical indicators in line with both the national needs and the methodology of the European Statistical System (ESS).

•Analyzing of the criteria for defining other producer of official statistics

• Informing the other producers about the need for the establishment of Committee of producers of official statistics and of the main role of Committee

Meeting with OPOS

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• The meeting gathered about 80 participants from 31 state institutions.

• In order to strengthen coordination, SORS has plan to establish a Committee of producers of official statistics, as well as the to develop national guidelines for the production of official statistics in line with European standards, for the development, production and dissemination of official statistics. SORS should set up a system for monitoring compliance with these guidelines.

• Committee of producers of official statistic should improve

• exchange of information between producers of official statistics

• enhance compliance with the CoP

• provide a stronger identity and greater visibility for the NSS.

• improve knowledge, methodologies, content of databases, quality reporting;

• development of IT tools of official statistics, etc.

Meeting with OPOS

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• To ensure good coordination at the operational level, and not just at the planning and programming levels, systems need to be in place to allow an effective exchange of information between producers.

•Currently, this communication takes place in four ways:

discussions on the annual plan and the annual report;

formal agreements, in some cases between the SORS and other producers;

ad hoc methodological working groups;

and bilateral contacts on a case-by-case basis.

Meeting with OPOS

www.stat.gov.rs / stat@stat.gov.rs

Further plans:

•Organizing regular meetings with producers of official statistics

• Establishing a working group of authorized producer,

•Discuss CoP implementation, relevant training opportunities, quality reporting…

• to develop IT tools for official statistics

• Establishing a coordinated release calendar and common dissemination tools

• Establish common webpages as an information repository for the national statistical system

•Making Annual Reports on the Implementation of the statistical program within national statistical system

•Organizing training taking into account the needs of national statistical authorities

• Exchanging knowledge and good practices with EU countries concerning coordination role

• Preparing Action Plan for improving coordination in NSS

Meeting with OPOS

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As result of these meetings is improved interoperability which has the following consequences:

• Improved cooperation with Tax Administration (signed agreements in February 2017. (Tax Authority data are used for the calculation of avarage wages and salaries from January 2018.)

• Improved cooperation with Ministry of Justice - agreement was made to switch to electronic data transmission 7 our surveys related to crime statistics and statistics on divorces.

• Improved cooperation with the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-government concerning electronic data transmission of statistics of births, deaths. Ministry will establish register of births, deaths and citizenship, which is step towards Population register, which should also be constructed.

Coordination of the NSS with ONAs

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• Improved cooperation with Republic Geodetic Authority – participation inworking group for constitution of the Addresses Register. RGA is in charge toestablish the Real Estate Register.

• Initiated collaboration with Government Office for IT and e-Government relatingto establishment of Meta register which should facilitate process of thestandardization of the statistical system.

Coordination of the NSS with ONAs

www.stat.gov.rs / stat@stat.gov.rs

•Despite the existence of legal right to participate in all activities related to establishment and modification of administrative sources, SORS has no mechanisms to force owners to keep SORS informed about the planned activities and to invite us to take part on time.

• Therefore cooperation and communication remain the only way to empower SORS influence on admin. sources, and enhance its status and visibility among state authorities and in the society as a whole.

•All mentioned activities should enable SORS to improve quality, comparability and consistency of official statistics.

Coordination of the NSS with ONAs

Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia

Thank you for your attention!

www.stat.gov.rs

veselinka.skiljevic@stat.gov.rs