1 KOSTRA - Municipality/State Reporting Experiences from Norway Anne-Britt Svinnset Statistics Norway

Main topics Local governments in Norway KOSTRA: Background, purpose, history and organisation Data and key figures Electronic chain of reporting Publishing Use of the statistics

Local Governments in Norway The regional level: 18 Counties The local level: 433 Municipalities - from 250 to inhabitants Responsible for important services –schools, health care, care for the elderly, water, wastewater treatment, garbage removal, fire protection.... Use about 17 per cent of GDP

4 The chain of reporting before KOSTRA Municipal agency Municipality Govern- ment agency Ministry Statistics Norway

Project history : Pilot project –Four municipalities : Project continues –Increasing number of municipalities - all in 2001 –Further development of the system : KOSTRA established

KOSTRA’s purposes Better information about the local authorities –Coherent system –Comparability - benchmarking –Timeliness More efficient reporting –No data redundancy –Electronic data reporting

7 KOSTRA’s chain of reporting Municipal agency Municipality Govern- mental agencies Ministries Statistics Norway

Better information - organisation Task forces (for kindergartens, primary schools, etc.) make annual reports: –Changes in the reporting –Coordination to avoid double reporting –Reduce the burden of reporting The Council for KOSTRA discusses the reports The ministries responsible for the reporting and SN makes the formal decision

Coherent information system Recource allocation Services and users Requirements (population characteristics) Productivity Priority Coverage

Accounting regulations Classification by Function, example: –201 Kindergarten –211 Extra care for children in kindergartens –221 Localities and transport for children in kindergartens Classification by Types of Expenditure, ex: –Services produced by the municipalities –Services bought from others (private companies, other municipalities or the state) –Transfers

Electronic Data Reporting (EDR) Both the national authorities and the municipalities need statistical information - FAST! KOSTRA collects information 15 February, year n+1 KOSTRA publishes the first figures 15 march, year n+1 This timetable is only possible with electronic data reporting

Client systems Accounts Electronic form Statistics Norway SMT STT Metadatabase WWW publishing Municipality Statistical auditing systems KPD External data

Electronic control of data Before reporting –Controls in the electronic forms –Control program for file extracts When SN receive data –Control program for file extracts (the same as before reporting) Auditing systems in SN The municipalities have the ultimate responsibility for correct reporting and data quality

KOSTRA calendar 15.1.Reporting of file extracts for client data from municipalities (year n-1) 15.2.Reporting of other data from the municipalities (year n-1) 15.3.Publishing of data (not revised figures) (year n-1) 15.4.Reporting of corrected data from municipalities (year n-1) 15.6.Publishing of revised data (year n-1) 30.6.Annual reports from the task forces 1.10.Final decision about reporting (year n) Final decision about changing of file extracts (year n+1) 1.11.Letter to the municipalities with information about reporting (year n)

Users of the statistics The central authorities Municipalities The Association of Local Authorities: A project to help municipalities start benchmarking within networks. SN have arranged courses for local politicians in how to find and use the data. The figures are used in research The press uses the figures And the national accounts get much better specifications

Conclusions The Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development’s involvement helped a lot: By giving status, opening doors and funding much of the costs Organization was important: Close contact with both the local and the central governments Benefits for Statistics Norway: Improved data, electronic reporting, new systems for auditing, processing and publishing statistics KOSTRA has been an expensive, long-lasting project, but is still considered a success due to the benefits for the many users of the statistics