On Tuesday, Statistics SA presented its strategic plan for the next five years to the finance portfolio committee, which is responsible for parliamentary oversight of the official statistics agency, as well as national treasury and the SA Revenue Service.
At a previous presentation, held in October last year, members of the portfolio committee had raised probing questions over data quality and reliability, statistical capacity building and training, and a large-sample survey planned to replace the next scheduled population census.
At this week's hearing, Stats SA was able to report on progress made in these and other areas.
The community survey, which will replace the population census originally scheduled for 2006, will provide information on living conditions at municipal level.
To do this with acceptable levels of accuracy, the sample size will be considerably larger (17 000 enumerator areas) than other Stats SA surveys. Results are anticipated in November 2007.
Although training and capacity building in official statistics are long-term processes, Stats SA was able to report that over 40 staff had been trained at various east African institutes; a masters' programme in data mining had been set up at the University of Witwatersrand; and the internship programme, which this year involves 15 young statisticians, will be expanded to 60 next year.
In the longer term, the aim is to develop a statistical training institute available to all government employees. Preliminary activities include research on similar institutes in other countries, liaison with local universities, and development of course material.
The release of data of acceptable quality and reliability is at the core of Stats SA's business. During 2004/05, Stats SA released 285 different statistical publications covering 53 series.
While the vast majority of these releases were unproblematic, an error in manufacturing data at the beginning of the year undermined confidence in the reliability of the agency's work, and the data had to be corrected.
Revisions, unlike errors, are routine in any statistical agency as more and better data become available, and as improvements in methodology and quality are introduced.
The business register, from which samples for economic measurement are drawn, has been rebuilt, and the revisions that followed have led to more comprehensive coverage and measurement of the economy.
Direct price collections for measurement of the consumer price index, through which processed data will be collected directly from retail outlets rather than by postal surveys.
A new diary method of collecting information for the income and expenditure survey.
New surveys on tourism and services. Another major initiative involves the establishment of a centralised repository for storage and dissemination of data according to common classifications, standards and definitions.
This development of a data warehouse will include central metadata and data repositories. Change and innovation form an important component of Stats SA's strategic planning.
However, at the same time, a stable platform for the collection and release of data on an ongoing basis has to be maintained. This was well demonstrated in the week before the committee presentation.
On May 12, Stats SA released its regular suite of sales data for measuring and monitoring the economy (motor, retail and wholesale trade sales; and mining and manufacturing production and sales).
In the case of manufacturing, production for the first quarter of 2005 declined by 1 percent compared with the fourth quarter of 2004.
Lower production was reported by six of the 10 manufacturing divisions. However, increases were reported in motor, retail and wholesale trade sales.
Total mining production for the first quarter of 2005, when compared with the fourth quarter of 2004, increased by 6.8 percent. However, the actual value of mineral sales for the three months to February 2005 reflected a decrease of 7 percent compared with the previous three months.
This week's presentation to the finance portfolio committee reflected Stats SA's efforts to establish the balance between stability and revision, consistency and change, and innovation and consolidation required by a national statistics agency.
To download a copy of the Strategic Plan click here.
Pali Lehohla is South Africa's statistician-general and the head of Stats SA. For more information on Stats SA and its statistical outputs, visit www.statssa.gov.