Quality Audits at Statistics Finland Ari Tyrkkö Eurostat WS 8 - 9 December 2009 1

Background 1 Several external auditing activities concerning statistical quality - by Eurostat, IMF, UNFCCC (greenhouse gas emissions) etc. At the organisation level: European Statistics Code of Practice EFQM framework based national auditing Despite the variety of audit actions StatFi had not got any systematic and consistent auditing system targeting on all statistics production processes. Supervisory and Control for NA 9 December 2009 2 2

Background 2 During 2006: StatFi took the system of Swedish origin under consideration in two projects (modifying, developing, piloting). Feb 2007: a steering group to manage the continuous audit system at StatFi Annually 10-12 audits 200 statistical production processes to be audited. Supervisory and Control for NA 9 December 2009 3 3

Objectives 1 The whole production process of particular statistics in question is reviewed thoroughly. Systematic approach to evaluate and question ways of working, methods and techniques → development proposals Identifying and searching best/good practices used in different statistics and spreading (by the steering group) them at the organisation level Supervisory and Control for NA 9 December 2009 4 4

Objectives 2 Increases knowledge in networking experts from different parts of organisation, and brings more discussions to organisational culture Supervisory and Control for NA 9 December 2009 5 5

Operational Structure Steering group (6 members) External collegial auditor team of 3 members from the pool of auditors An NA expert for auditing NA source statistics Team of persons in charge from the statistical production process (1-4 members) The Self-assessment Form Supervisory and Control for NA 9 December 2009 6 6

Operational Structure Steering group (currently 6 members) External collegial auditor team of 3 members from the pool of auditors Team of persons in charge from the statistical production process (1-4 members) The Self-assessment Form Preparations, control and communication: Steering group Auditing, Collegial procedure Consensual procedure Report, plan of actions, follow-up Self-assessment, Collection of documentation Supervisory and Control for NA 9 December 2009 7 7

Self-assessment Form: Headings Administrative information Planning and management Contacts with users Staff competence (& working situations) IT systems Data collection Data processing Dissemination Documentation and archiving Follow-up, evaluation and improvements Supervisory and Control for NA 9 December 2009 8 8

Operational Process Self-assessment, collection of documentation: the statistics team collects and sends to the auditor team. Supervisory and Control for NA 9 December 2009 9 9

Operational Process Self-assessment, collection of documentation: the statistics team collects and sends to the auditor team. Audit stage I: auditors familiarise themselves with the target statistical process. Supervisory and Control for NA 9 December 2009 10 10

Operational Process Self-assessment, collection of documentation: the statistics team collects and sends to the auditor team. Audit stage I: auditors familiarise themselves with the target statistical process. Stage II: interviews with the statistics team with the help of the self-assessment form. Supervisory and Control for NA 9 December 2009 11 11

Operational Process Self-assessment, collection of documentation: the statistics team collects and sends to the auditor team. Audit stage I: auditors familiarise themselves with the target statistical process. Stage II: interviews with the statistics team with the help of the self-assessment form. Stage III: auditors write the audit report and send it to the statistics team for comments. Supervisory and Control for NA 9 December 2009 12 12

Operational Process Stage IV: the consensus meeting: both teams finalise together the audit report with development proposals etc. Supervisory and Control for NA 9 December 2009 13 13

Operational Process Stage IV: the consensus meeting: both teams finalise together the audit report with development proposals etc. Final Report: the auditor team writes the final version and send it to the statistics team and present it to the steering group. Final Report includes: - general evaluation - development proposals - good examples - experiences from the audit process Supervisory and Control for NA 9 December 2009 14 14

Thank You! ari.tyrkko@stat.fi Welcome to European Conference on Quality in Official Statistics 3-6 May 2010 Helsinki, Finland q2010.stat.fi Supervisory and Control for NA 9 December 2009 15 15