Russia
2000 report
EUROSTAT
Directorate A: Statistical information systems; research and data analysis; technical cooperation with Phare and Tacis countries
Unit A-5: Technical cooperation with Phare and Tacis countries /
Russian Federation
2000 Country report
Overview of the Statistical System
Table of Contents
1. Institutional aspects 3
1.1. Mission 3
1.2. Structure and organisational aspects 3
1.3. Legal setting 4
1.4. Relationship with Central and Local Governments 5
1.5. Relationship with users and dissemination policies 6
1.6. Relationship with suppliers 8
1.7. Planning and programming 9
1.8. Finance and budgeting 9
1.9. Staffing, staff recruitment and development 10
1.10. Training policy 11
2. Statistical infrastructure 12
2.1. Information technology 12
2.2. Classifications 14
2.3. Business register 15
3. Economic, financial and trade statistics 17
4. Population and Social Conditions 18
5. Business Statistics 18
6. Other Statistics 19
7. Conclusions 21
8. Annexes 22
1. Institutional aspects
1.1. Mission
The main mission of the State Committee of the Russian Federation on Statistics (Goskomstat of Russia) is the satisfaction of the requirements of the bodies of State authority and administration, the media, the population, the scientific community, private companies and enterpreneurs, international organisations, with an objective and exhaustive information. Its main tasks are to:
- elaborate and implement state policy in the field of statistics
- provide official statistical information on the economic, demographic and social situation in the country to government bodies of the Russian Federation, government bodies of the subjects of the Russian Federation, local authorities and to economic subjects, scientific and academic organisations, the mass media and citizens.
- elaborate and develop a scientifically based methodology for conducting statistical surveys and develop statistical indicators, and ensure that the official methodology is in line with international standards.
- co-ordinate the activity of the executive bodies in the field of state statistics by developing the information resources relating to the economic, demographic and social situation in the country
- store and protect official statistical information
- co-operate at international level in the field of statistics
1.2. Structure and organisational aspects
· Internal organisation of the Goskomstat of Russia
The statistical system is composed of the Central Office of Goskomstat (622 employees), the Computer Centre (761 employees), other central institutions (645 employees), territorial statistical committees (22 937 employees) and other staff employed at regional level (6 730 employees).
The central office of Goskomstat is organised into 20 sector departments. The full organisational chart is in annex 3.
· Appointment procedures
The Goskomstat Chairman and his six Deputies are nominated by the Government. The positions have no specific duration, nor are there any terms in office. The nomination is valid till the government nominates other persons to the mentioned positions.
Heads of Department are appointed by the Chairman of Goskomstat of Russia, with no specific term in office.
· Main Computer Centre (MCC)
The Main Computer Centre of Goskomstat is responsible for data collection, processing, automated treatment and archiving, with the objective to use the most up-to-date information technology.
· Regional structure
There are 89 territorial committees (one per “subject” of the Russian Federation), and 2200 district departments (one per “raïon”). The functional structure is the following:
- Federal Okrug. It is a new territorial division, created in the year 2000. It is a grouping of subjects. There are 7 federal okrugs in the Russian Federation.
- Subject of the Russian Federation. There are 89 such subjects in the Russian Federation, of various sizes and population (in Siberia, they can be very vast, but with limited population). See map in annex. Some of the subjects have a specific legal and administrative status, such as Republic Tatarstan, for instance, or autonomous okrug (Koryak). Republics elect their President and have a local government. However, most subjects have the status of Regions, and elect a governor.
- Raion. It is a subdivision of the regional level. There are around 2 200 raions in the Russian Federation.
Data collection takes place at the local level, and after a first level of aggregation at regional level, data is sent to Moscow, where the second level of aggregation takes place. Data concerning the regions is then sent back to regional offices, while nation-wide data is published and disseminated by the Goskomstat.
· Scientific institutes
A few scientific institutes are part of the statistical system, and are very tightly collaborating with Goskomstat:
- NII stat ( Scientific and Research Institute of problems of socio-economic statistics)
The Institute’s aims are to work on the reform of statistics, the development of theory and methodology in the domain of socio-economic statistics, in accordance to international standards, and the supply of analysis and recommendations based on the data collected and treated, to the administrative and government structures.
- NIPI Statinform ( Scientific and research Institute on technological projects of the statistical information system of Goskomstat)
The objectives of the Institute are to develop the methods and means of computerisation of the statistical system with modern IT and telecommunication techniques and programs, and to fulfil the policy of modern data treatment in statistics through common and unified up to date software.
- “Statistical questions” journal. It is a scientific publication with quarterly issues, and covers all aspects of official statistics, and research in statistics.
1.3 Legal setting
· Law on statistics
There is no law on statistics. However, the Goskomstat is according to the article 71 of the Russian Constitution, responsible for the collection and publication of statistics in the Russian Federation. On 25.05.99 a President Decree changed the status and name of the Goskomstat to Russian Statistical Agency. It was restored to its status and name of Goskomstat (State Committee) by decree on 06.12.99.
· Other relevant administrative regulations
In 1996, the government of the Russian Federation approved a long-term program on “ Reform of Statistics 1997-2000”, aimed at improvement of methodologies, modernisation of statistical enquiries and indicators, improvement of data collection and reduction of the cost of statistical work.
· Data confidentiality
In accordance with the UN Statistical Commission basic principles, Goskomstat guarantees the confidentiality of reported information to all respondents. The information collected is solely for statistical purposes, in order to produce aggregated data, and raw data cannot be transmitted to other administrations. Maintaining the confidentiality of individual data is the basis of retaining the trust of respondents in the statistical bodies, and increases the quality and reliability of the data disseminated. Although there is no legal basis, the understanding of the need to respect confidentiality is progressing in Russia, in particular among enterprises, and more and more respondents to statistical enquiries put it as a condition to provide individual information.
Tacis is financing a component on Confidentiality within the current project on reform of regional statistics. The project aims to enable the Goskomstat to introduce practical measures at federal and regional level in order to guarantee the confidentiality of statistical data collected, treated, archived and disseminated. It also includes the preparation of a suitable proposal for introducing the confidentiality principle into the draft statistical law.
· Legislative changes under preparation
Two important legal texts are under preparation:
- Law on the 2002 population census: this law is mandatory, as under the current Constitution, households are not obliged to fill-in the census forms or reply to interviews.
- Law on statistics: a new draft is being prepared and will be presented in 2001 to the State Duma.
1.4 Relationship with Central and Local Governments
· Role of the NSI in the government
Goskomstat provides official statistical information to government bodies of the Russian Federation and local authorities. The activity of the Goskmostat is governed by the Russian Constitution, federal laws, decrees and orders of the President of the Russian Federation, decisions and orders of the Government of the Russian Federation.
· Relations and Links at central level with Ministries
Goskomstat has the responsibility of inter-branch coordination and functional control of the statistical system. It fulfils this task, notably, through the development of the Federal Programme of Statistical Work. Statistical activity is also coordinated at national level on the basis of common methodology.
Goskomstat is entitled to receive, on the basis of forms of state statistical reporting information from federal executive bodies of the subjects of the Russian Federation and local authorities. A close co-operation is long established with the Ministry of Justice, which is responsible for State registration of businesses, with the State Customs Committee, which is responsible for External Trade data recording, and other Federal and Regional administrations, such as Ministries of Agriculture or Transport. An agreement on access to data from the Tax Administration is foreseen in the near future, but is linked to modifications in the current legislation on confidentiality for the Tax Administration that prevents it to supply information to other entities or private persons, including the Goskomstat.
· Protection of NSI independence
Goskomstat follows the basic principles of the 1994 UN Statistical Commission on this point too. It is foreseen to protect its independence explicitly in the upcoming law on statistics. The Goskomstat is independent in choosing statistical methods and in producing statistics. It also controls the conformity of other producers' methods for collecting, processing and releasing official statistics.
· Relations and Links at regional level with Local Governments
Under the current statute of Goskomstat, it is responsible to provide statistical information to central and regional executive bodies. Due to its important network of regional and local offices, the Goskomstat maintains close relations at regional level with local governments. In fact, all the data collection is done at local level, and 70% of the data is processed at local level.
1.5 Relationship with users and dissemination policies
· Relationship with users
The users are divided in different categories: government users and policy makers, enterprises and entrepreneurs, citizens, academics and researchers. In the past, government users were clearly a priority for the Goskomstat, but it is clear that the focus has shifted towards other users in the recent years, and now, enterprises and citizens visibly targeted by new campaigns of information, and the release of new information media (internet, CD-ROMs…)
Setting-up a regular dialogue with users of statistics has clearly become a priority for Goskomstat. A Tacis financed project has been carried out to support this orientation and has just been completed. The main outcomes include the development of a new policy towards mass media, the setting-up of a press service, the launching of customer surveys and the increased use of Internet as dissemination channel. Further work will be undertaken in this direction under the implementation of the World Bank STASYS project (see annex 7) particularly planned is to finance the creation of press services in all regional offices.
· Dissemination and marketing policy
After a long tradition of publishing large amounts of data in hard copy, the Goskomstat has pursued lately a policy of electronic dissemination, with the opening of its web site (www.gks.ru) in August 1998, and since then many publications are also available on CD-ROM.
The web server also has an English language version, with reduced information available.
The Russian version publishes on-line many databases, such as the ones contained in the following publications:
- Russian statistical yearbook
- Regions of the Russia
- Socio-economic situation in Russia (monthly data)
Tacis is financing a project on data exchange, which aims to exchange data with Eurostat, and to create the EUROROS database. This database, which is soon to be opened to authorised users (password access), contains the main statistical indicators both for Russia and the European Union.
Russian data is now available in the Eurostat database NEWCRONOS, and quarterly data is sent according to the new Memorandum of Understanding signed between Goskomstat and Eurostat.
A Tacis project on dissemination of information from databases is also on going. One of the main instruments of a timely and efficient dissemination of statistical data is a statistical database. Data dissemination from statistical databases using modern electronic means of presenting information is a direction which will help to solve the tasks of providing data timeliness and quality and at the same time it meets the interests of statistical data users. The main means of disseminating data from statistical databases using modern technologies are:
- Compact disks containing databases;
- The use of the Internet for data delivery from databases and providing on-line access to databases;
- The application of geographic information systems (GIS) for statistical data.
The Goskomstat has some experience in producing compact disks containing official publications. However, the output of compact disks with statistical databases and the presentation of statistical databases in the Internet have been constrained by the absence of specific software customised for these functions. This software will provide statistical data presentation in a database format and will have a user-friendly interface.
The use of geographic information technologies for statistical data processing will significantly increase the information content and visual capacities of statistical data as well as provide additional opportunities for their analysis and comparison.
The information Centre “Informatics”, affiliated with Main Computer Centre (MCC), has the exclusive right to distribute all official statistical publications and their electronic version (diskettes, CD-ROM and via Internet) which contain reliable and up-to-date information.
· Relations with the press
Press conferences are held regularly, particularly before the publication of the main yearly publications, or the official release of the main monthly and quarterly statistical indicators (inflation, GDP, unemployment…) (see annex 5).
· Publication of sensitive data
All main economic indicators are regularly published, monthly or quarterly, and widely disseminated.
· Monitoring the demand for statistics
A database of actual clients is being held and monitored at Goskomstat, in order to assess demand for statistics publications. Tacis financed a project on Dialogue with users, which was completed in November 2000. A questionnaire was sent to 800 Goskomstat clients, and results were analysed. A marketing plan will be drawn out of it in the near future. Better communication with users and respondents is the key to a new relationship between enterprises, citizens and the Goskomstat, as was highlighted by the project, during its last action, a seminar in which attended representatives from most Russian regional offices. The main perspectives for dissemination of statistical information are the use of internet as a tool to disseminate statistical information, the improvement of the statistical literacy of the various user groups, the relations with mass media and information brokers, and co-ordination at a national and international level.