Minutes of the 3rdMeeting of the Committee to Review the PSS

05 September 2007, 1 p.m.

Room 208

I. Attendance

Review Committee:

1. Dr. Vicente Valdepeñas, Jr. - Chair

2. Dr. Isidoro David- Member

3. Dr. Cielito Habito- Member

4. Dr. Mercedes Concepción- Member

5. Dr. Lisa Grace Bersales- Member

Inter-Agency Secretariat:

  1. Dr. Celia Reyes (PIDS)- Head, Secretariat
  2. Ms. Edith Rivera (BLES) - Member
  3. Ms. Monina Collado (NSO) - Member
  4. Ms. Lily Elloso ( SRTC) - Member
  5. Ms. Marilen Macasaquit - Support Staff
  6. Mr. Sonny Domingo - Support Staff
  7. Ms. Lourdes Catacutan- Support Staff
  8. Ms.Barbara Gualvez- Support Staff

Absent:

  1. Dr. Jose Ramon Albert- Member, Secretariat
  2. Ms. Maura Lizarondo- Member, Secretariat

II. Review Committee Meeting Highlights

  1. Call to order

The meeting was called to order at 1:20 p.m. with the Chair, Dr. Valdepeñas, presiding.

  1. Approval of the minutes of the previous meetings held on August 1, 8 and 15, 2007.

Aug. 1 minutes

a. The committee went over the draft minutes of the Aug. 1 meeting. Dr. Concepcion asked why there were a number of question marks in parentheses following the names of the committee members. It was learned that it was not the revised minutes and that the one who prepared the minutes was not present during the meeting. Dr. Habito instructed the secretariat to delete the question marks after his name. Dr. Valdepeñas also moved to delete the question marks in paragraphs 8 and 9. Ms. Rivera informed the committee that she was absent during the meeting, not present as indicated in the minutes.

b. The committee approved the Aug. 1 minutes, with minor corrections. Dr. David said the committee is not expected to approve the minutes of Aug. 8 and 15. Dr. Habito congratulated the secretariat for doing an excellent job in preparing the minutes of the meetings.

Aug. 8 minutes

Dr. Bersales: on page 17, the course should be “S11” not “F11.”

Dr. David: on page 29, it should be “50,000 households” not “15,000.”

c. The committee deferred reviewing the Aug. 8 and 15 minutes.

  1. Presentation on the best statistical practices of international statistical organizations in four countries

a. Ms. Rivera presented the matrix that the secretariat prepared indicating the highlights of the statistical review of the four countries namely, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands and Sweden.

b. There were 9 categories: legal bases, position in government, organizational structure and finance, multi-annual or annual work program, nature, main duties, other producers of official statistics, statistical advisor bodies, data collection and data dissemination. The matrix was structured to easily compare the similarities and differences among the top four countries. Dr. Valdepeñas commended the secretariat for the excellent matrix.

Some of the highlights that were discussed by the committee:

-Among the four countries, the Netherlands’ statistical body was established most recently, in 2003; it became an autonomous agency in 2004;

-For position in the government, the head of Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reports to the Treasurer;Statistics Canada reports to the Ministry of Industry; for Statistics Netherlands, the Minister of Economic Affairs serves as its champion before parliament;while Statistics Sweden reports to the Ministry of Finance;

-As provided by the Netherlands’ Statistics Act of 2003, there is a guaranteed budget for the Statistics Netherlands and it shall have a legal personality.

-The head of the Statistics Netherlands is called a Director-General and does not report to the parliament (since he is not a member); the Minister of Economics champions the Statistical body before parliament as mandated by law.

-The Statistical Netherlands has a central commission on statistics that acts as an advisory body whose members have 3-year terms that may be renewed after.

  1. Regional consultations

a.The regional consultations would be held in La Union, CebuCity, DavaoCityand Cagayan de Oro City.

b.The schedule of the consultations and who will attend from the committee, secretariat and PIDS is as follows:

Place / Date / Attendees
San FernandoCity,
La Union / November 8-9 / Dr. Bersales, Dr. Concepcion, Ms. Rivera and Ms. Lizarondo
CebuCity / November 15-16 / Dr. Bersales, Dr. Concepcion and Ms. Elloso
DavaoCity / November 22-23 / Dr. Habito, Dr. David and Ms. Collado
Cagayan de Oro City / November 26-27 / Dr. Valdepeñas, Dr. David and Ms. Castro

c.The budget only allows, at most, two committee members, two secretariat members and one from PIDS in each regional consultation. Dr. Valdepeñas instructed Dr. Reyes to write a letter addressed to Dir. Iluminada Sicat of the BSP requesting additional funding for the regional trips.

  1. Adjournment

There being no other matter to discuss, the meeting was adjourned at 3 p.m.

Prepared by:

Inter-Agency Secretariat

Approved by:

Dr. Vicente Valdepeñas, Jr.

Chair

MATTERS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES

Tasks / Person Responsible / Remarks
1. Consultative meetings/FGDs
Sending of feedback report and the list of questions on the issues that were not tackled to the heads/representatives of the statistical units of DOH, DepEd, DOT, FNRI, CHED and TESDA. / Secretariat
Drafting of letter to Dir. Iluminada Sicat requesting for additional funding for the regional consultation meetings. / Dr. Reyes
Facilitator for the next FGDs / Dr. Reyes / Ms. Macasaquit / Dr. Albert agreed to be the facilitator on Oct. 10.

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