Accurate government data ‘vital’

THE National Statistical Office (NSO) has the responsibility to ensure that all government information is accurate and timely, National Planning Minister Charles Abel says.
Abel told The National that the government wanted to make sure that all the money spent on education, health and infrastructure is properly  reflected through the indicators.
“We need to know on a timely basis the information on what’s happening with infant mortality, maternal mortality, immunisation, school attendance, teacher ratio and literacy,” he said.
“There is a whole range of other reporting agencies, but these are the ones specifically mentioned as the primary agency for the collection of government data.”
NSO and the Civil Identity Registry are  specified in the National Planning Act as the two primary agencies under planning that support the monitoring and evaluation framework. Abel said one of the main things that NSO had concentrated on was the completion of the 2011 census.
He said Civil Registry was brought in and national planning was supporting both agencies to get the reports completed.
“That is all part and partial of the reporting system and this is where the two agencies also provide supporting information.
“Things like the poverty index, poverty report, demographic health survey and other detail data sets are what we’ve done in terms of the census.