Vanuatu National Statistics Office Business Plan

Contents

Overview

Values

Corporate Mission and Vision Statements

Key Result Areas/Objectives

The Vanuatu National Statistics Office (VNSO) is an independent Department of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Management (MFEM) and is headed by the Government Statistician under the Statistics Act CAP 83. The Act permits for the collection, compilation and publication of official statistics in Vanuatu. It also defines the role and responsibilities of the Government Statistician as the Government’s adviser on all statistical matters, as the official authority on statistical standards, the co-ordinator of the statistical activities of government departments, and as a major producer of statistics. Accordingly, the legislation provides significant guidelines in the formulation of the Office’s business plan. Extracts of the main provisions of the Statistics Act are quoted in Attachment 1.

1.2 Organisational Structure

The VNSO has a ceiling of 23 established positions but at present employs 18 staff. The current organisational structure is shown in Attachment 2.

The VNSO is currently engaged in implementing a major restructuring of its operations. The objective is to create an organisational structure which will enable the Office to more efficiently utilise critical resources. With the new staff ceiling imposed in 1998, the Office is now moving to an organisational structure that focuses on teamwork and staff flexibility. It is important that this new structure allows for task allocation and output responsibilities which can be adequately measured and reflected in the remuneration of the performing staff.

1.3 International Statistical Standards

It is important that the VNSO maintains a high standard of official statistics that are recognised both regionally and internationally. The value of these statistics is substantially enhanced if it is comparable with data from the Pacific region and internationally, and also with different sources within the country. It is for these reasons that there is widespread international consensus on statistical needs on such activities as population and agricultural censuses, labour statistics, national accounts, price indexes and demographic statistics.

The IMF’s General Data Dissemination Systems (GDDS) is a vehicle to assist countries to improve the quality of outputs of statistical systems. It accomplishes this objective by providing tools to facilitate the identification of needed changes in statistical systems. These tools can be used for diagnostic and developmental purposes. Moreover, the GDDS is geared to the dissemination of data that meet the requirements of the user community.

The values and principles of the GDDS are to be used as guiding principles for the development of the VNSO.

There are also internationally agreed and recognised conceptual standards such as the United Nations System of National Accounts (SNA), the International Labour Organisation (ILO) sponsored framework for labour and employment statistics, etc. These provide procedural guidelines for the consistent treatment of data to enable international comparison of important social and economic measures such as national accounts, and labour market statistics.

The United Nations also produces a range of standard statistical classifications such as: International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC); and International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO). Such standard statistical classifications have enhanced the value of Vanuatu’s official statistics by ensuring that they are consistent with other nations. This will make it possible to compare Vanuatu’s economic, social and demographic characteristics with other countries. A key objective of the Office is thus to maintain high international standards and assist other organisations in Vanuatu to meet these standards.

1.4 Marketing Policy

The ongoing direct provision of public funding ensures that the Office can continue to provide effective public access to official statistics at no more than nominal cost to users. However, the Statistics Office is required to fund a part of its expenditure by way of revenue separate from its approved budget.

The Office charges for statistical products which are specifically developed for commercial markets. Publications come in two categories namely, regular publications and special one-off publications. The promotion of the Office’s publications and services is done through the conducting of user awareness seminars and by the development of dissemination methods which adopt advances in technology.

In addition, the VNSO provides customised services to meet the requirements of other government departments, organisations or the private sector. These services include:

• access to relevant statistics and analysis, from existing VNSO databases;
• advice and assistance on special surveys;
• advice and assistance on database development; and
• advice and assistance on tabulation, analysis and report writing.

Charges are set at a level designed to reflect the value of the product to the purchaser. The price must also be set to recover direct costs associated with the product, including a return on the capital assets of the Office employed in their production.

2 Values

Values which are regarded as important to the National Statistics Office are:

• Produce outputs with integrity / impartiality
• At all times respect peoples / business confidentiality
• Timeliness is an important aspect of quality output
• At all times co-operate with and respect customers
• Team work produces results in a small office
• At all times co-operate with and respect other staff

Equity issues are an important focus for outputs

3 Corporate Mission and Vision Statements

National Statistics Office Mission Statement

The Statistics Office is the lead agency in collection and reporting of timely and reliable statistical information on economic and social aspects of Vanuatu to the Government, private sector, international agencies and the general public for policy-making and planning purposes.

National Statistics Office Vision

To become an efficient agency in the Pacific providing a fully integrated computerised data system that conforms to international standards and is accessible at provincial and national levels, and to increase statistical awareness through appropriate training for statistical agencies and data users.

MFEM Corporate Vision

"To contribute to significantly and equitably improving economic growth and development and the economic and financial well-being of all the people of Vanuatu, while retaining those elements of Vanuatu culture and social values we continue to cherish".

4 Key Result areas/objectives

The key result areas identified by the VNSO are:

Customers

• To have appreciative customers who are highly satisfied with services provided.

Staff

• To have a motivated, innovative, and co-operative workforce with a high level of job satisfaction.
• To have a qualified and experienced workforce with access to appropriate internal/external training opportunities.

Processes

• To provide high quality statistical information on a timely basis.
• To have a coordinated set of statistical standards and procedures which all of Vanuatu can follow.
• To maintain information technology levels which will keep Vanuatu at the forefront of statistical developments.

Finance

• To achieve an adequate budget level that is managed effectively.

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