1. Experience of Bulgaria*
07/16/96
(Re)-Organising the production of national statistics: a challenge for pre-accession countries
Experience of Bulgaria
Roumiana Petrova, Deltcheslava Deltcheva
Strategic Management Seminar,
Split, November 2007 *

2. CONTENT INTRODUCTION LEGAL BASIS STRATEGIC PLANNING COORDINATION
MONITORING
ACQUIS IMPLEMENTATION - DRIVING FORCE
STRENGTHS & WEAKNESSES
CONCLUSIONS

3. INTRODUCTION Long way to accession
Changes without breaking the production process
Trust in statistics – criterion for successful transition

4. LEGAL BASIS DEVELOPMENT
First Law on Statistics -( Professional independence, Mandate for data collection and dissemination, Confidentiality)
1999 – Amendments in compliance with Council Regulation 322/97/EC and UN Fundamental Principles for Official Statistics (NSI coordination role, Bodies of Statistics, National Programme for Statistical Surveys – NPSS)
2002, 2005 – Bulstat register and UISRAC – taken away from NSI
New Draft – in line with the new Community Law on Statistics, implementation of CoP, introduction of quality requirements, reduction of respondents’ burden, confidentiality, mechanism for management of EU grants
2001 – Census Law on Population, Housing and Agricultural Farms
2006 – Law on Statistics of Intra-community Trade of Goods (INTRASTAT)
NPSS

5. BODIES OF STATISTICS BULGARIAN NATIONAL BANK Statistics Directorate
MINISTRY OF FINANCE Treasury Directorate
Intrastat Directorate, National Revenue Agency
Customs Statistics and Analysis Division, Customs Agency
MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FOOD SUPPLY Department “Agrostatistics”
MINISTRY OF HEALTH National Center for Health Information
MINISTRY OF TRANSPORT Port Registers and Control Directorate, Executive Agency
“Port Administration “
Registers and Statistics Department, Directorate General
“ Civil Aviation Administration”
NATIONAL SOCIAL SECURITY INSTITUTE Directorate General “Analyses, Planning and Projections”
MINISTRY OF LABOUR AND SOCIAL POLICY Social Analyses, Prognosis and Policies Directorate
MINISTRY OF ECONOMY AND ENERGY Information Services Division
MINISTRY OF INTERIOR Coordination, Information and Analyses Directorate
EXECUTIVE AGENCY ON ENVIRONMENT Monitoring of the Environment Directorate
INVEST BULGARIA AGENCY Investment Analyses and Statistics Division

6. STRATEGIC PLANNING I
Strategies
First strategy 2000 – 2006 ( mission, vision, values, priority tasks)
Medium term Programme 2003 – 2006 (by policy)
New Strategy 2008 – 2012 ( under elaboration) - in line with the Community Statistical Programme
Sectoral strategies (ISIS, IT, Training, Dissemination)

7. National Programme for Statistical Surveys
STRATEGIC PLANNING II
National Programme for Statistical Surveys
2001
2008 (plan)
Number of Surveys/ Activities
217
314
Number of Staff
1883
1494
Budget – Mln BGN 12 24

8. STRATEGIC PLANNING III
NPSS 2008 (plan)
The most expensive surveys ( 50% of total budget): HBS, SBS, LCS, LFS, STS, CPI
Programme structure
Surveys – 186 (20 from administrative sources)
NA and Balance Aggregates - 30
Infrastructure Tasks – 54
EC financed projects – 44
Share of other bodies and institutions – 15% of total number of NPSS surveys and activities
80 % - Commitments to ESS; 20% - National tasks

9. COORDINATION OF STATISTICAL ACTIVITIES
Tools for coordination:
NPSS
Statistical infrastructure:
classifications - NACE, CPA, PRODCOM, NUTS registers – of statistical units, of settlements
rules for dissemination- 410 publications, of which electronic
Councils (National Statistical Council, High Statistical Council)
Formal Agreements with Bodies of Statistics and other institutions -27
Inter-institutional Working Groups – 70

10. MONITORING Compliance Monitoring process started in 1998.
External Monitoring
Several Screening Exercises
Global Assessment of the National Statistical System
EC Progress Reports and Road Maps
Sub-Committee 4 ”Economic and Monetary Issues, Capital Movements and Statistics”
Eurostat Compliance Data Base/SMIS
Internal Monitoring
National Programme for Adoption of the Acquis (NPAA).
WG 12 Statistics
National Annual Action Plan for implementation of EU recommendations

11. ACQUIS IMPLEMENTATION - DRIVING FORCE
Need to start by Comparative analysis between the SRC requirements and the national practice.
The acquis implementation necessitates:
Improvement of statistical production processes:
New surveys or changes in the existing ones
Significant changes in the statistical infrastructure
European quality criteria, reports & indicators
Development of administrative processes and capacity building:
Strategic planning & priority (re)setting
Budget projections
Reform of the organization structure Coordination
Reduction of respondents’ burden
HR Management ( high qualified and motivated staff)
Training
IT infrastructure development
Support by EU pre-accession Programmes (National & Multinational)

12. STRENGTHS & WEAKNESSES
Well developed legal basis, guaranteeing professional independence of the system
Well developed planning system
Well functioning mechanism for coordination, use of formal agreements as an instrument for inter-institutional coordination
Extended skills in management of EU pre-accession funds and planning of future activities
Experience in implementing new acquis in pilot and ad hoc data collection projects
Availability of qualified staff
Intensive training and improvement of qualification

13. STRENGTHS & WEAKNESSES
Lack of a Time Recording System
Late start of work on quality compared to other countries
Insufficient use of administrative sources
Limited experience in measuring respondents’ burden
High level of turnover of young staff
Lack of a system for motivation according to results
Low level of IT infrastructure

14. CONCLUSIONS The EU accession is a long way, but it is worth going.
The European integration and the Enlargement process have a very positive impact on statistics.
Community statistical requirements stimulate the development of the national production process - the statistical practice changes, the number of indicators increases.
New users appear on European and national level.
European funds provide additional financial resources to the national budget for statistics.
NSS reform changes the image of statistics in society.
The role of NSI as national coordinator and representative of the country in the ESS should be promoted.
Cooperation within the country and on European level is the main tool for achieving success in the pre-accession process.
Regional cooperation contributes to the accession.
NSI should invest in human resources as most valuable element of capacity building.

15. Thank you for your attention!