1. From State Accounting to Government Finance Statistics
Seminar on the Implementation of the International Standards In the Financial Statistics of the EAEU
31 May – 03 June 2016
Dilijan, Armenia
Agnes Naarits
Statistics Estonia

2. Outline Estonian statistical system in brief
Story of public accounting
From accounting to GFS
Where does your money go?
slide 2

3. Official statistics in Estonia
Centralised statistical production, 2 producers:
Estonian Central Bank: monetary statistics, BOP, IIP
Estonian Statistical Office (Statistics Estonia, SE) – official statistics on:
Economic
Demographic
Social and
Environmental situation in Estonia
Official Statistics Act renewed in June 2010
statistical programme approved by Government
5-year rolling, renewed every year
slide 3

4. Estonian GFS Mandatory by European Union legislation:
ESA/SNA, data transmission programme
Excessive Deficit Procedure (EDP) Statistics: focus on GFS
extensive reporting twice a year
audited very carefully: country missions
Lot of details – how to obtain from aggregates???
Need for more information!
slide 4

5. GFS = data for policy decisions
Accounting Law for public sector accounting since 2004:
Consistent with IFRS and IPSAS
Accrual-based accounting
All public units covered:
state budgetary units
local governments
social security and non-profit institutions
legal persons in public law
business companies controlled by government sector
All accounting units cross-checked with statistical profiling system by Statistics Estonia
slide 5

6. Public Sector Accounting Principles
General Guidance of the Public Sector Accounting - regulation of Minister of Finance from :
general accounting principles for the public sector entities
IPSAS for all entities except Government Business Enterprises
uniform chart of accounts
reporting form and due dates
SE was involved in development work: needs of GFS were taken seriously!
slide 6

7. Chart of accounts and reports
Chart of accounts includes:
accounts
counterpart codes
activity/function codes (COFOG!)
source codes
cash-flow codes
Reports consist of account combinations and their positions
Checked by MoF, aggregated and published in web
Data accessible for SE at any point of time
slide 7

8. Accounting entry Account combination: Example:
account code - compulsory
counterpart code
code of function
source code
cash-flow code
Example:
Account
Counterpart
Function
Source
Cash-flow
Debit
Credit
155900
800599
03100 01
70 000
201000
12 600
450000
014301 22
slide 8

9. Reporting online reporting only, managed by MoF
from 2004 to 2007 quarterly for all reporting entities
since 2008:
monthly: all units of General Government Sector
quarterly: all other public sector entities, incl financial and non-financial corporations
checked by MoF, aggregated and published:
slide 9

10. Auditing audited by National Audit Office:
State Financial Report
Financial Reports of Ministries
direct access to the public accounting system
all other units are audited by private auditors according to the Accounting Law
slide 10

11. From bookkeeping to GFS: chronology
2004: learning the standards!
2004 second half: first analysis of the reported data
2005: brigde tables, distribution keys, test-calculations and analysis, analysis, analysis…
Accounting entries
Bridge tables (coding)
Preliminary GFS data
Validation & analysis
ESA 2010 (SNA 2008) based GFS
slide 11

12. From bookkeeping to GFS: chronology, 2
2006: vision for IT-system
2006 – 2009 development of the IT-system
2008 – 2009 revision of general government financial and non-financial accounts
Publication in September 2009:
backward revision till 2004: break in time-series
Since implementation:
No data collection by SE on public finances
Other administrative sources used for cross-check and analysis
slide 12

13. Market/non-market delineation
Decision tree used for defining GG units (GFSM 2014 fig. 2.4 or ESA 2010 Diagram 20.1)
Close cooperation: SE, MoF, CB
Fiscal reports are used for market/non-market testing (50% rule in Europe)
all public enterprises are tested once a year
quantiative test: automated testing procedure
results are carefully analysed
qualitative test in borderline cases
case-by-case studies for all new units
List of GG units published 2x year (list of active economic units on SE web)
slide 13

14. Public sector in Estonia
General Government sector (2925)
Public enterprises and foundations
(market producers)
(256)
Central Government (317)
Local Government (2606)
Social Security Funds (2)
State budgetary units (203)
Local Governments & their sub-units (2366)
Health Insurance Fund
State owned
Public-legal institutions (27)
Foundations (189)
Unemployment Insurance Fund
Owned by Local Governments
Foundations (64)
Health-care institutions (28)
Health-care institutions (10)
Enterprises (23)
As of
Enterprises (13)

15. Publication
GFS – intergal part of National and Financial Accounts, meaning: fully consistent
Consistent with BOP: SE shares processed GG data
Publication in database
Annual GFS t+3 and t+9 months
Quarterly GFS t+85 days
SDMX-transmission to Eurostat same day
Reporting to European Comission, European Central Bank, OECD etc – based fully on GFS
slide 15

16. Where does your money go?
2011 – State Finances application: first opendata on local governments’ financial information
pilot project of MoF, MEF & private ITC company
hudge sucess: querys in 2 months
5 min per query = 4 years work for officials to answer
2016 – all general government financial data published as opendata
Purpose: more transparent and understandable government sector´s financial activities
slide 16

17. Where we stand: Good quality public bookkeeping =
reliable government finance statistics
useful tool for governors for
policy making
slide 17

18. Economic and Environmental Statistics Department
Contact:
Agnes Naarits
Deputy Head
Economic and Environmental Statistics Department
STATISTICS ESTONIA
Tel:

19. Thank you!
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