THE PROGRAMMED PERIOD IN NATIONAL STATISTICS

The Statistics Law of Turkey (Act number 5429) came into effect in 2005 to determine basic principles and standards concerning the production and organisation of official statistics; and to regulate the formation, duties, and authorities of the Turkish Statistical Institute which is to compile and assess data and information, produce, publish and disseminate statistics on the areas that country needs, and to ensure coordination among institutions and organizations that are involved in the statistics process prescribed in the Official Statistics Programme. The innovations introduced with the new law can be seen in the following.

 

• Foundation of the Turkish Statistical Institute

The Law no. 53, dated June 13th, 1962 on the Establishment, Duties and Authorities of the State Institute of Statistic and other regulations related to the State Institute of Statistic are repealed and instead The Turkish Statistical Institute is established to implement the Law no. 5429 and to perform tasks assigned by it. The Turkish Statistical Institute is consisted of the Turkish Statistical Institute Presidency and the Statistical Council. The Turkish Statistical Institute Presidency has a central office and 26 regional offices.

 

• The Statistical Council

The Statistical Council is established to advice on the preparation and implementation of the Official Statistics Programme and on the development and functions of the official statistics; to determine and assess the areas in which official statistics are needed and to provide opinions and suggestions for future works to be carried out.

The President of the Turkish Statistical Institute is also the chair of the Council. The secretarial services of the Council are carried out by the Institute. Working procedures and rules of the Council are laid down in The Regulation of Turkish Statistical Council issued by the Council of Ministers in May 5th, 2006 in the Official Gazette.

The opinion of the Council is advisory. The Council meets at least once a year.

The Council is composed of : Undersecretaries of Ministries; Undersecretary of the State Planning Organisation; Undersecretary of Treasury; Undersecretary of Foreign Trade; Undersecretary of Customs; Undersecretary of Maritime Affairs; President of the State Personnel Office; Governor of the Central Bank of Turkey; an academician to be designated by the Board of Higher Education from among those engaged in works related to the duties of the Institute; Head of Executive Board of the Union of Chambers and Stock Exchanges;  Chairman of the non-governmental organization engaged in the field of statistics and having the highest number of academic staff in its membership and Chairman of the non-governmental organization having the highest number of real persons or legal entities that are engaged in surveys and researches with statistical outcomes.

 

• The Official Statistics Programme

The Official Statistics Programme, based on the Statistics Law of Turkey No 5429, has been prepared for a 5-year-period in order to determine the basic principles and standards dealing with the production and dissemination of official statistics and to produce reliable, timely, transparent and impartial data required at national and international level. A programmed period for the Turkish Statistics System has been launched with the Official Statistics Programme 2007- 2011.

This Programme will enable to prevent repetitions in the production and dissemination of official statistics, decrease the burden on respondents, save on labor force and resources and enhance the confidence on official statistics. Furthermore, official statistics are standardized, responsible and related institutions are defined, data compilation methodology and the publication periodicity/schedule of official statistics are specified.

In relation to the implementation of the Programme, data identified to be produced by institutions and organizations other than Turkish Statistical Institute (TURKSTAT) in the Official Statistics Programme shall be considered as official statistics. Thus, in any field required, only one reliable official statistics will be produced.

 

The aim of the Official Statistics Programme is:

 

• - to determine the basic principles and standards dealing with the production of official statistics,
• - to ensure the production of reliable, timely, transparent and impartial data,
• - to provide an efficient coordination between the institutions,
• - to reduce the burden on respondents,
• - to prevent the duplications and the production of contrasting data:
• - to reduce the costs,
• - to increase the trust on statistics.

 

Besides it indicates:

 

• - which data is going to be produced,       
• - by which institution,
• - according to which classification,
• - at which geographical level,
• - at which frequency,
• - and when to be published.

The scope of the Official Statistics Programme is:

 

• - the data to be produced, research method,        
• - responsible-related institution(s),
• - definitions, methodology, classifications,
• - geographical scope,
• - compiling frequency,
• - and publication date.

 

• The Official Statistics Programme in Figures

The main chapters of the Programme are Statistical Infrastructure, Social and Demographic Statistics, Macroeconomic Statistics, Business Statistics, Agriculture Statistics and Environment Statistics. There are 40 structural working groups and 184 member institutions within the scope of the Programme. 73 institutions are related where 33 are responsible for data production. There are 5 main chapters, 35 subjects, and 286 sub subjects. 45% of the statistics within the Programme is produced by TURKSTAT. 22% of the official statistics are produced through surveys while 63% is based on administrative records and 15% uses both methods.

In 2009, the responsible institutions had published 759 daily, 416 weekly, 756 monthly, 136 quarterly, 8 semi-annual, 151 annual (2226 in total) bulletin/data under 286 sub chapters. In 2008, on the other hand 753 daily, 364 weekly, 696 monthly, 120 quarterly, 4 semi-annual, 196 annual (2133 in total) had been published under 278 sub subjects.

 

• The Official Statistics Principles

In order to improve the quality of official statistics, statistics produced within the scope of Official Statistics Programme shall be prepared and implemented in accordance with the principles of reliability, consistency, impartiality, statistical confidentiality, timeliness and transparency. According to the 4th article of the Law no. 5429, all relevant information and methods used in producing official statistics shall be made public in order to allow the evaluation of the quality of official statistics and their compliance with the principles. All institutions and organisations as well as their staff in charge of implementing the Programme are obliged to act in accordance with the provisions of this law or any further regulations that may be issued on the basis of it.

 

• Annual Monitoring Reports

In order to evaluate the implementation of the Programme, TURKSTAT shall prepare “Official Statistics Programme Annual Monitoring Report”.

Organizations and institutions specified in the Programme are responsible to TURKSTAT for providing reports related to their performance annually.

The level of implementation of the activities within the scope of the Programme executed by the responsible and relevant institutions and organizations will be determined, and if there is any, precautions  needed to be taken to remove the defects will be specified at the Annual Monitoring Report. Monitoring reports are evaluated through discussions at the Statistical Council. 

An Information Portal for the Official Statistics Programme is developed by the TURKSTAT in order to constitute and update a database of the official statistics produced in Turkey. The studies related to the Official Statistics Programme can be followed through this system.

 

• The National Data Release Calendar

The National Data Release Calendar, main tool stating data the responsible institutions and the publication periodicity/schedule of the data, is announced at the beginning of each year by TURKSTAT.  Any change on the date of release is notified to TURKSTAT with its justification two days before the foreseen date in the National Data Release Calendar at the latest.

 

• The International Official Data User Inventory

Data dissemination of the organizations and institutions to the foreign institutions and international organizations will be conducted via International Official Data User Inventory which has been prepared by TURKSTAT.

 

• The Data Quality Control Board

The institutions and organizations responsible for the production of official statistics have to take all kinds of measures to produce data in accordance with the classification and qualification standards determined in the Programme and to make quality control including whole process starting from data collection to publication.

The control of compliance with the standards is conducted by the Data Quality Control Board set up under the new law.

The institutions and organizations meet all type of demands of the Board or the working groups established by the concerned regulation in the specified time period.

 

• The Publication and Dissemination Board

Determination of principles, standards and procedures related to publication and dissemination of official statistics and monitoring the compliance with those is performed by the Publication and Dissemination Board.

Institutions and organizations specified in the Programme are obliged to conform to the Principles of Dissemination of Official Statistics in the publication and dissemination process. Those principles are as follows:

 

• - Equal and Easy Access,
• - User Orientedness,
• - Impartiality,
• - Transparency,
• - Timeliness.

 

• Redefining the Penalties and Precautions for Data Protection

The new law redefines the penalties which should apply in cases of failure of obligation in statistical activities or nonresponse.

 

• Coordination of the National Register Systems

The new law determines the constitutions, standards, principles and updates of the national register systems. Institutions and organisations are obliged to establish, update and open to the statistical use of TURKSTAT their national register systems regarding their working areas in line with the standards defined by TURKSTAT. Approval of TURKSTAT is required in any legislative arrangement pertaining to this field. Thus TURKSTAT undertakes the technical infrastructure for the national register systems compatible nationwide. Such an infrastructure has been needed for a long while.

 

• Use of Individual Data (Micro Data)

Micro data, the basis for the production of official statistics, shall be disseminated within the principle of confidentiality on charge. In case data providers demand their own data, those demands shall be met free of charge. All authorities responsible for the production of official statistics can enable the use of their data free of charge in case they take the necessary security precautions and they obey confidentiality judgments.

 

• The Data Confidentiality Principles

Confidential data can be accessed only by the ones involved in the production of official statistics, to the extent that they need for performing their duties properly.

 

If the number of the statistical unit in any cell of the data table formed by aggregating the individual data is less than three or one or two of the statistical units are dominant even if the number of units is three or more, the data in the concerned cell is considered confidential. The confidential data compiled, processed and preserved for the production of official statistics cannot be delivered to any administrative, judiciary or military authority or person, can not be used for purposes other than statistics or as an instrument of proof. Civil servants and other staff in charge of compiling and processing these data are obliged to comply with this rule. This obligation continues after the related personnel leave their duties and posts.

The rulers of the institutions and organisations producing official statistics shall take all measures to prevent any illicit access, use or revelation of the confidential data.

 

Data or information obtained from sources that are open to all people shall not be deemed confidential. Data confidentiality ceases when a statistical unit gives written approval for the revelation of confidential data concerning itself. Confidential data can be published only as combined with other data so as not to allow any direct or indirect identification.

 

The principles and procedures relating to data confidentiality and security are regulated through the Regulation of Procedure and Principles of Data Confidentiality and Confident Data Security in Official Statistics, issued by the Council of Ministers and published in June 20th, 2006 in the Official Gazette.