UKRAINE

COUNTRY REPORT 2001

UKRAINE

1

UKRAINE

COUNTRY REPORT 2001

Table of contents

1Institutional aspects

1.1Mission......

1.2Structure and organisational aspects......

1.3Legal setting......

1.4Relationship with Central and Local Governments......

1.5Relationship with users and dissemination policies......

1.6Relationship with data suppliers......

1.7Planning and programming......

1.8Finance and budgeting......

1.9Staffing, staff recruitment and development......

1.10Training policy......

1.11Organisation of International Co-operation......

2Statistical infrastructure

2.1Information technology......

2.2Classifications......

2.3Business register......

3Economic, financial and trade statistics

3.1National Accounts......

3.2Estimation of Non-Observed Economy......

3.3External Trade Statistics......

4Population and Social Conditions

4.1Demographic Statistics......

4.2Social Statistics......

4.3Labour Force Statistics......

4.4Household budget survey......

5Business Statistics

5.1Industrial statistics......

5.2Construction Statistics......

5.3Retail and Wholesale Trade Statistics......

5.4Transport and Communications Statistics......

5.5Service statistics......

6Agricultural Statistics

7Other Statistics

7.1Regional Statistics......

8Conclusions......

Annexes

1

UKRAINE

COUNTRY REPORT 2001

1Institutional aspects

1.1Mission

The mission of the State Statistics Committee of Ukraine (SSCU) is the development of the statistical system of the country, including the following directions:

- determination of the state statistical policy,

- coordination of statistical activity in the country,

- collection, processing, storage, protection, dissemination, and analysis of statistical information,

- ensuring reliability and objectivity of statistical data,

- development, implementation and improvement of the statistical methodology,

- development, implementation and improvement of the system of statistical classifications,

- development and maintenance of the Single State Register of Enterprises and Organisations.

1.2Structure and organisational aspects

  • Internal organisation of the NSI

The statistical system is centralised and consists of three levels – central, regional (oblast) and local (rayon). The Central Office is SSCU that is located in the city of Kiev. The head of SSCU is the Chairman who has 4 Deputies responsible for different areas of the SSCU’s activities. At present, the structure of SSCU consists of 21 departments, each including several divisions. The structure of SSCU is approved by the Chairman of SSCU.

Besides, SSCU incorporates the Research Institute of Statistics, the Institute of Statistics, Accounting and Audit, the State Agency for Dissemination of Statistical Information, and the Information and Publishing Centre. The organisational chart is given in Annex 1.

  • Appointment procedures

Since 1997 the Central Statistical Office has a status of Committee. The President of Ukraine appoints and dismisses the Chairman of SSCU and his Deputies based on a proposal of the Prime Minister of Ukraine. The Chairman of SSCU is not a member of the Cabinet, but takes part in the Cabinet meetings as an observer.

  • Regional structure

The second level of the statistical system consists of 28 regional statistical offices, including: the Main Inter-regional Statistical Office located in Kiev (former Computer Centre as reorganised in late 2000), the Main Statistical Office in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, 24 oblast statistical offices, and the city statistical offices of Kiev and Sevastopol. The third level, i.e. local statistical offices, includes 587 statistical units of the rayon and town level.

All territorial (regional and local) statistical offices are financed from the SSCU budget. The territorial offices have the right to undertake extra statistical surveys under the request of the regional or local administration in case the latter provides funding of the surveys.

The Chairman of SSCU, in coordination with the regional administrations, appoints the heads of regional statistical offices. The latter, in their turn and in coordination with the local administrations, appoint the heads of town and rayon offices, which are under their respective supervision. On average, 230 persons work in each regional office and 10 persons in each local office.

The level of equipment of the territorial offices is rather poor (see point 2.1).

The local offices are responsible for data collection and first data check. The regional offices aggregate data received from the local offices, input all the data into PCs and carry out a necessary logical check. The regional offices disseminate the aggregate data at the oblast level, do some analysis and submit the results obtained to the SSCU and to relevant administrative authorities.

  • Scientific institutes

In 1969, under the Decree of the State Committee for Science and Technology of the Council of Ministers of USSR, the Ukrainian branch of the Research Institute of the CSO of USSR was established. The branches of the Research Institute of Statistics of CSO of USSR in the Ukraine and Latvia were its only territorial subdivisions. Since 1992, the Institute has become an independent institution, and is subordinated to SSCU.

The mission of the Research Institute of Statistics, as set by SSCU, is to investigate methodological solutions for a number of vital problems in the transformation process towards international standards under the conditions of the integration of the Ukraine into the world economy.

Nowadays, the staff of the Institute amounts to 150 persons, of which 10 are doctors of sciences and 28 - candidates of sciences. The Institute runs post-graduate courses, and is a leading research institution making expert examination of scientific dissertations in statistics, economic, and mathematical modelling. There are three territorial branches of the Institute located in Zhitomir, Lvov and Kharkov.

The Research Institute of Statistics implements the following activities:

-Development of specialised classifications

-Development and adaptation of statistical methodology (national accounts, non-observed economy, household surveys, agriculture, environment, etc…) and mathematical methods (sample surveys, ranking of enterprises and regions)

-Estimation and short-term forecasting of socio-economic indicators

-Developments concerning the Information Technology infrastructure.

SSCU together with the Research Institute of Statistics work on creation and adoption in the practice of new state statistical classifications and a system of automatic keeping the classifications, as well as on implementation of sample surveys.

Experts of the Research Institute are involved in conducting business tendency surveys based on the European harmonised questionnaires. The results of the questioning are regularly published in the OECD publication Key Economic Indicators: Non-Members.

Every year the Research Institute of Statistics holds scientific and practical conferences. It is a member of the International Statistical Institute and international association CIRET. It has its own web-site on the SSCU server:

The Research Institute of Statistics publishes quarterly the Bulletin of Business Tendency of the Ukraine,Bulletin of the Survey of Business Activity of Ukrainian Enterprises, Journal Statistics of Ukraine, and annually the collection of scientific studies Problems of Statistics.

  • Organisation and working conditions

The building of SSCU was constructed in 1951. In 1987, a new part of the building was completed. SSCU occupies the whole building and has 219 offices located on six floors. Due to lack of finances only some offices were renovated during the last ten years. The heating system runs below full capacity. SSCU experiences problems connected with the payment of some infrastructure costs. There are no problems with electricity. Though, due to some technical reasons occasional cuts-off are possible. Salaries are paid in time. A special security is organised for the building. On average, three to four employees share one office. Heads of departments have separate offices. International phone calls are recommended to be made from the international relationship department.

In December 2000, SSCU was reorganised to incorporate the former Computer Centre together with its building, which is connected to the building of SSCU through passages.

1.3Legal setting

  • Law on statistics

The adoption in 1992 of the Law of Ukraine on State Statistics created a legal basis for the development of statistics and marked the beginning of the reform of the national statistics. The law covered basic provisions of independence of statistics and reorganisation of the statistical system towards the needs of a market-oriented economy. It also determined the responsibility of SSCU for organisation and functioning of the statistical system of the country as a whole and prevented other government authorities, legal entities and the public from intervention into the activities of SSCU.

In 1995 and 1997, two Presidential Decrees aiming at improved performance of SSCU were issued. The 1997 Decree on Measures to Develop the State Statistics was devoted to creation of a single system of accounting and statistics according to international standards and stipulated the task to develop a multi-annual programme of statistical reforms till the year 2002.

In 2000, the Parliament of Ukraine adopted the Law of Ukraine on Introduction of Amendments to the Law on State Statistics (No 1922-111 of 13 July 2000). The draft law had been prepared by SSCU and discussed with all interested ministries and departments. While drafting the law, SSCU followed the UN fundamental principals of official statistics and took into account the model law drafted by Eurostat and effective legislative enactments of other countries. The final version of the Law was prepared in close co-operation with the IMF adviser and approved by the IMF Statistics Department and Eurostat. The Law came into force as of 1 January 2001.

  • Other relevant administrative regulations

Besides the Law of Ukraine on State Statistics the statistical legislation also includes the Law of Ukraine on the All-Ukrainian Population Census and Amendments to the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Violations adopted in 2000. In addition, there are a number of normative and legal acts related to different statistical areas (e.g. national accounts, industry and transport statistics, etc.).

In connection with the adoption of the Law on State Statistics SSCU prepared a draft law on introduction of amendments to some legislative enactments. The bill was considered and approved by the Supreme Council on 7th of February 2002.

In compliance with the Law on State Statistics adopted in 2000, the State Statistics Committee drafted amendments to the Statute of SSCU stipulating to strengthen the role of SSCU in the system of executive power.

  • Data confidentiality

SSCU acts in accordance with the international statistical standards on data confidentiality and makes every effort to strictly follow these standards. The Law on Statistics contains a separate chapter devoted to confidentiality of statistical data, which includes two clauses: the first imposes on SSCU the obligation to ensure confidentiality of individual data and the second specifies the statistical data to be disseminated.

The implementation of the confidentiality principle, which is defined by the Law on Statistics, creates some practical difficulties. There were several court trials in 2001 involving a regional statistical body versus some other administrations for non-provision of confidential data. Up to now the Courts have always supported the SSC. The origin of such misunderstandings is to be sought in the legislation of other administrations, which sometimes define the right for access to individual data from the SSCU. These difficulties are nowadays mainly with the Ministries of Defence and Security. In order to solve most of these contradictions, SSCU has introduced a new Law, which contains a list of amendments to other laws (see below).

  • Registers

SSCU is responsible for keeping the Single State Register of Enterprises and Organisations of Ukraine and supervises organisational, methodological, normative and technological issues related to the creation and keeping of the register. The work is underway on improvement of the existing administrative register of enterprises with the purpose to expand its statistical functions and set up on its basis a statistical register to be used for constructing statistical samples and conducting sample surveys. The register does not contain individual data on natural persons.

There is no population register in the Ukraine. SSCU is now working on the development of a register of agricultural producers.

1.4Relationship with Central and Local Governments

  • Role of SSCU in the government

SSCU is an independent institution, which is not subordinated to any ministry or department. SSCU reports directly to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. Not being a Minister, the Chairman has the right to participate in the meetings of the Cabinet of Ministers.

SSCU is supposed to be the co-ordinator of the statistical system in the country, but inter-governmental communication still remains insufficient and needs to be further improved.

Some other ministries and executive authorities also implement various surveys having agreed with SSCU necessary reporting forms and instructions for completing those.

  • Relations and links with ministries at central level

Within its responsibilities to provide statistical data for policy-making in different branches and to monitor its implementation, SSCU works in close co-operation with all state executive authorities providing them with statistical information and also receiving from them necessary administrative data.

Thus, under the agreement on information co-operation between SSCU and the State Customs Committee, the latter delivers to the statistical bodies primary monthly external trade data based on customs declarations. The Ministry of Fuel and Energy provides data on exports/imports of electricity, oil, and gas. Using data on exports/imports of goods and services, SSCU prepares and publishes a quarterly trade balance. SSCU delivers data on external trade of goods and services to the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), which is responsible for the Balance of Payments. At the same time, SSCU uses data obtained from NBU to analyse the financial situation, as well as to compile national accounts and calculate indicators of money expenditures of the population.

Relations are also developed with the State Tax Administration, which allows executing data exchange and using the tax register information for statistical purposes.

SSCU submits on a regular basis to the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy of Ukraine a full set of data on labour and other relevant issues. The State Employment Services, in their turn, provide SSCU with information on employment and the number of unemployed.

The Ministry of Economy and European Integration of Ukraine gets numerous statistics developed by SSCU and uses these for data analysis and forecasting of trends of the socio-economic development.

Good contacts have been established with the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), which were intensified recently in the course of preparing and conducting the All-Ukrainian Population Census. SSCU regularly receives from MIA data on crimes, offences, road accidents, etc. The procedure of providing SSCU with data on registration of cars is now under consideration.

SSCU gets data on execution of budgets at different levels from the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine and delivers, in its turn, aggregated business statistics, official releases of finance statistics, and other aggregated data. SSCU in co-ordination with the Ministry of Finance develops bookkeeping forms.

  • Protection of the SSCU independence

In accordance with the law on statistics SSCU is independent from the government, political parties and organisations, as well as from private companies or persons. It has the right to determine the content of statistical data and choose statistical methods, data sources, dates of data release, and ways of data collection and dissemination. In all these areas the independence of SSCU is secured by the active legislation.

  • Relations and links at regional level with Local Governments

Both regional and local statistical offices operate independently from the local governmental authorities and provide them on a continuous basis with free statistical information on the socio-economic situation of the region, which enables the latter to make adequate administrative decisions.

1.5Relationship with users and dissemination policies

  • Relationship with users

In accordance with the responsibilities imposed on SSCU to produce and disseminate objective, reliable and timely statistical information reflecting different processes of economic and social life in the country, statistical data are submitted to different groups of users like governmental authorities, which form the largest group of users, as well as to scientific circles, research institutions, mass media and the public. The demand for statistical information constantly increases.

Aiming at training statistical users, SSCU has started to organise seminars on various statistical issues like national accounts, industry statistics and households surveys.

Each month SSCU prepares a report and statistical bulletin on the socio-economic situation in the Ukraine, as well as produces current statistical information. In 2000, SSCU issued 183 express releases, 159 economic reports, 98 statistical bulletins and 46 statistical publications (see the list of main publications in Annex 2).

All publications are issued in Ukrainian. There are several bilingual (English/Ukrainian) publications and some publications include a summary, table of contents, and table headings translated in English (e.g. Statistical Yearbook, Ukraine in figures, Ukraine and CIS countries). A joint publication Ukraine and Germany was issued in 2000 in Ukrainian and German, a joint SSCU/Eurostat statistical book Ukraine and EU countries: facts and figures in Ukrainian and Englishis being finalised. The insufficient amount of English publications limits their usefulness for international users.

Standard statistical products are provided to users on paper copies (which is the most popular form of presenting data) and in electronic form. Statistical data on CD have not been produced yet.

The address of the SSCU Web site is:

  • Dissemination and marketing policy

In August 1998, the Regulation on “Approval of the Regulation on Implementation of Statistical Works and Rendering Paid Services by State Statistical Bodies” was adopted by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. Following this Regulation, the program of statistical bodies activities in rendering paid services was elaborated within the framework of the TACIS project on data dissemination and approved by the Chairman in November 1998. The program covers basic aspects of statistical data dissemination among different users, key aspects of pricing policy, setting up of contractual work etc. Nowadays, the program is being revised and more comprehensive concept of SSCU marketing policy is being prepared.

In order to improve the dissemination of statistical information, the State Agency for Dissemination of Statistical Information has been established (SSCU Order of 19 April 2000). SSCU has delegated to the Agency its responsibilities on providing paid services in dissemination of information and selling statistical publications. The Agency is subordinated to SSCU and headed by a former Deputy Chairman of SSCU.