1. Assessing Quality of Statistical Data: The ROSC Procedure in Israel
Conference on Data Quality for International Organizations
April 27-28, 2006, ONS, Newport, Wales, UK
Session 4: Peer Review Methodologies
Assessing Quality of Statistical Data: The ROSC Procedure in Israel
Yoel Finkel
Central Bureau of Statistics, Israel

2. Highlights Background Objectives Method & Process Main Findings
Immediate Benefits
Concluding Remarks

3. Background Brief overview of paper The Statistical system in Israel
CBS
BOI
Government Agencies
Statistics Ordinance
Mandates responsibility to CBS
Ensuring data confidentiality
Sanctions for noncompliance

4. Objectives Assessment of macroeconomic statistics against SDDS.
Assessment of data quality, based on DQAF, 2003.
These are to serve:
Internal coordination and harmonization, by using external standards.
Improvement of data quality, via recommended mechanisms.
Acceleration of development and improvement processes.
Recruitment of resources needed for generating qualitative official statistics, based on an objective and professional evaluation.

5. Method
Examine definitions, processes and products, compare them against standards and evaluate them by key quality indicators.
Related activities :
Meetings with managers and specialists.
Review of documentation.
Review of the organizations’ web-sites.
Review of statistical publications.
Users’ survey to evaluate statistics quality.
Meetings with users.

6. Process in Israel: Preparation stage
Planning the activities and setting up the schedule;
Exposure of all agencies involved to the DQAF;
Users’ survey, according to IMF’s instructions;
Joint consultation among Israeli officials involved;
Preparation of relevant documents by subject matter specialists;
Logistical preparations.

7. Process: The Review
Daily meetings of the reviewers with managers or specialists of the agencies involved. In addition to oral reports and discussions, websites were visited, documents and publications were checked.
Meetings with users’ groups.
Review of the DQAF.
Review of reports generated by the IMF officials.
Translation of legal and administrative documents from Hebrew to English.

8. Process: Concluding Reports and Implementation
The IMF drafted two reports.
The Israeli authorities commented and
wrote a response with regard to the recommendations (plans for implementation).
Gradual implementation of the recommendations.

9. Analysis of Methodology
Prerequisites:
Building trust among participants.
Commitment of senior management.
Participation of sectoral experts.
Strengths:
Interaction with users.
DQAF as a framework and an evaluation tool.
Evolving process while reviewing.
Possible improvement:
Better learning of mutual expectations.
Preparation of translation ahead of time.
In addition to macroeconomics, other statistics are to be reviewed.

10. Main Findings: SDDS
Israel is generally in observance of the SDDS with regard to coverage, periodicity, timeliness and dissemination of advance release calendars.
There have been some delays in the dissemination of monetary and financial statistics.
Israel does not fully manifest the intra- and inter-agency coordination and communication.

11. Main Findings: ROSC Data Module
Israel’s macroeconomic statistics are of generally high quality and adequate to conduct effective surveillance.
Israel’s statistical managers are highly aware of all dimensions of data quality and are undertaking reforms to enhance data quality.
Shortcoming: Deficiencies in the timeliness, concepts and definitions, and classification of monetary statistics.
There is room to enhance source data for national accounts, producer prices, and government finance statistics.
The statistical system, especially the CBS, need adequate and sustained resources to cope with the substantial transformation of the Israeli economy.

12. Immediate Benefits
Improved coordination within the statistical system.
Better understanding of the needs, regarding budget and manpower, for generating statistics.
Enhanced understanding of users’ needs.
Acceleration of processes, which serve the production of additional statistics and the improvement of data quality.

13. Concluding Remarks
Follow up on recommendations (for example enhanced resources).
Finding the delicate balance between burden on the national statistical system and the needs for international standards, harmonization and quality improvement.
My humble suggestion: continue to improve coordination among international bodies - example: Medstat review process immediately following the IMF review on similar issues.