T he Hungarian Statistical System

1. TheHungarian Statistical System by Péter PUKLI President, HCSO 93rd DGINS Conference, Budapest 21 September 2007

2. Overview • History • The National Statistical Service • Key figures on HCSO • Modernisation process

3. History of the HCSOI. Back to the 19th century – laying the fundaments • 1848-49: The short period of independence there was an attempt to create national statistical service by Elek FÉNYES (1807-1876) • 1867: Establishment of the independent Hungarian administration. Károly KELETI (1833-1892) was invited to lead the Statistical Department as a part of the Ministry of Agriculture, Trade and Industry • 1871: The foundation of the National Statistical Office • 1876: The third International Statistical Congress was held in Budapest

4. II. Statistics in the 20th century • 1922: foundation of the Hungarian Statistical Society; • 1952: 4th statistical law: the socialist statistical system; • 1993: new statistical law: harmonization of the statistical system to ESS; • 2002: Global Assessment of the Hungarian Statistical System confirmed that Hungary was able to fulfil the EU requirements.

5. The National Statistical Service I. Members • Central Statistical Office; • Ministries; • Office of the National Council of Justice; • Office of the Chief Public Prosecutor; • National Bank; • Office for Economic Competition; • Financial Supervisory Authority.

6. II. Role of HCSO in theofficial statistics • Compiles the draft „Annual National Data Collection Program” in cooperation with other members in official statistics; • Submits it for opinion for the National Statistical Council; • Submits the program to the government for admittance; • The Program is published in official journals and on the website of HCSO; • HCSO is monitoring the implementation.

7. III. The National Statistical Council Professional advisory body of the President of HCSO. Representatives of: • members of the National Statistical Service; • trade unions; • trade associations; • local governments; • academic statistics. The members are nominated by the Prime Minister,onthe proposal of the HCSO’s president.

8. IV. The National Statistical Data Collection Program • It covers the surveys of the members of the National Statistical Service; • The draft is submitted to the National Statistical Council for opinion; • The proposal is sent to the government for admittance; • The Program is put in force, as the set of compulsory surveys by Government decree.

9. Key figures of the Statistical Office • 23 departments, 90 sections • Annual budget: 46.6 millions euros • Human resources: 1390 employees • 75% female, 25% male • 1000 statisticians, 390 for administrative and supporting activities • 2600 interviewers on contract basis

10. Key figures of the Statistical Office • 420workprogrammesincluding 142data collections and80 administrative data sets • 218 first releases in 27 topics, 118 publications • 106 gigabyte information on the web • 112 thousandstatistical tables downloaded from Dissemination Database

11. National Statistical Council President Deputy President responsible for economic affairs Deputy President responsible for statistical issues Internal audit section Price Statistics Department Financial Management Department Living Standard and Labour Statistics Department Administration and International Department Planning Department Foreign Trade Statistics Department IT Department Technical Department Agriculture and Environment Statistics Department National Accounts Department Dissemination Department Population Statistics Department Regional Directorate of Debrecen Statistical Research and Methodology Department Regional Directorate of Győr Sector Accounts Department Regional Directorate of Miskolc Services Statistics Department Regional Directorate of Pécs Social Services Statistics Department Regional Directorate of Szeged Business Statistics Department Regional Directorate of Veszprém

12. The modernisation process of the HCSO

13. I. Precedings Harmonisation of subject-matter areas. Screaning negotiations Audits of international experts from EU and Canada catalyzed a new approach to manage the developing work of the office. • Peer Review by Ivan Fellegi and Jacob Ryten, October 2001; • Global Assessment by Tim Holt and Jan Byfuglien, April 2002

14. The modernisation program: on the basis of the conclusions • The Strategic Development Council (SDC) was formed; • An overall strategic development plan for 2005–2008 was elaborated; • The top management of the HCSO started to reengineer the office by wide range of reformsteps.

15. II. Driving Forces • Social awareness • Governmental motivation • Business motivation • Development in IT

16. Driving Forces (1.) • Social awareness • To strengthen public confidence we need to increase the transparency of our service. • Our professional independence lies on the transparency of our production process; • To assure equal access to our data for all users, from the government to the general public. • Internet creates environment of equal opportunity for them; • The burden on our respondents must be reduced.

17. Driving Forces (2.) • Reform of the public administration • Regional centralisation of public services • Merger of institutions, cleaning profiles • New performance assessment methods

18. Driving Forces (3.) • Business motivation: resources vs. demands • Continuous budget cuts; • The dissemination policy turns towards free of charge information service, resulting in a loss of revenues; • The resources providedin the EU-accession period have been reduced; • On the demand side new user-groups: European Commission and ECB; • The answer to the challenges is to increase the efficiency of our work.

19. Driving Forces (4.) • Development in information technology • The fast development in IT has a great influence on the working environment of statisticians; • Information technology supports, even demands the integrated production process; • The Internet opens the world for statistics. The number of our users has multiplied.

20. III. The main fields of modernisation • Modernisation of the legal framework • Modernisation of management • Modernisation of institution • Modernisation of production

21. Main goals • improve the operational efficiency • increase the level of our professional work • improve thequality of our services • improve thetransparency of our activity • increase the prestige of the office • reduce theburden of respondents

22. Modernisation of the legal framework • Modifications in the Statistical Law • Revise the role and function of the National Statistical Council; • Direct reference to ESS Code of Practice principles; • Legal basis for easier access to administrative data; • To strengthen the coordinating and supervising position of the HCSO within the official statistics.

23. Modernisation of management • A programme planning system and procedure has been introduced; • Management Information System (integrated information from several sources) has been implemented; • System forassessment of programmes (KPI-s), product and process quality monitoring is under construction.

24. MANAGEMENT CONTROLLING FRAMEWORK Management Information System Assessment of our OUTPUTS Performance assessment, cost/benefit assessment, product quality monitoring, self assessment, audits „WHAT RESULTS?” Programme and resource planning „WHAT? FOR HOW MUCH?” Analysis, co-ordination, feedback System of process quality assurance „HOW?”

25. Modernisation of the institution The structure of the office is50 years old. • Organisational centralisation; 19 county offices  6 regional offices; (20 legal units  1 legal unit); • Supporting activities in one centre; • Introduction of the integrated financial and budget management system.

26. Modernisation of production Strategic domains: • Streamlining of the operations; • Integrated IT tools; • Quality assessment; • Training (HCSO School).

27. Streamlining of the operations • Changes in the division of labour along the value chains; • The production units are responsible for input and through-put phases; • The statistical units perform the survey design, macro operations and dissemination.

28. Integrated IT tools • Standardized IT applications • To minimize the heterogeneity of applications used in the production • 150 stove-pipes  3 or 4 stove-pipes • Extension of electronic data collection methods and tools

29. Quality assessment • Documentation of the production process. • Quality standards/guidelines for the different process steps. • Measurement of the process quality (process variables). • Checklist for the fulfilment of the guidelines. • Assessment of the performance based on these quality tools.

30. Quality assessment

31. HCSO School • The quality of our work is influenced by the statistical culture, knowledge and skill of the staff. • This can be improved by TRAINING. • 25 courses are held in a year; • Subject matter courses, IT courses and management courses are in the program; • Tutors are usually experienced members of staff, sometimes external consultancy is used; • The programme uses 1% of annual human resources.

32. The futureand its challenges • HCSO Strategy 2009–2012 • 2008 – the year of preparation • Population and general agricultural censuses within 3 years • Strenghtening international cooperation – active participation in collaborative networks

33. Thank you for your attention!