National Statistical Office of Papua New Guinea

The National Statistical Office (NSO) was established in 1981 by the Statistical Service Act (Chapter 386) and became the central agency in Papua New Guinea for providing statistical information to meet the needs of the Government for the formulation of policy and planning. Under Section 106 of the 1995 Reformed Organic Law on Provincial and Local Level Government, the NSO was also given the mandate to assist in creating statistical databases at the Provincial and Local Government levels for policy formulation and planning at these levels.

 

NSO Headquarters, Kumul Avenue (past Telikom Rumana building next to NBC Transmitters, Waigani). Pnone: (675) 301 1200 Fax: (675) 325 1869

 

Mission Statement

The mission of the National Statistical Office therefore, is to provide a full range of relevant and timely statistics on Population, Social and Economic activities for the National Executive, State agencies, Business and the individuals; thus, to provide the basis for information, decision making, research and discussion within the Community.

Objectives

In order to realize this mission the NSO attempted to meet the following specific objectives: -

Maintain a core range of balanced, timely and relevant statistics; Ensure quality output; Extend and improve the range of statistical services; Develop the capability of the NSO staff; Work to improve the physical environment of the NSO and encourage upholding the corporate code of ethics; Promote the work of the NSO to Government policy makers and to business and community leaders; Monitor the statistical activities of other Government Departments and agencies; Promote statistical standards, classifications and frameworks; Promote commercial aspects of the NSO products.

Organisational Structure

In 1983 the Public Service Commission carried out a major job evaluation exercise and approved the NSO structure with staff establishment positions of 135. This establishment was maintained up until the end of 1998. In December 1999, based on the 1999 Budget Directives, the NSO was restructured and positions reduced to 106. Statistical Research and Coordination activities, as well as the 2000 Census activities were strengthened in the revised establishment. The current activities of the NSO are conducted through the three divisions namely;  the Population & Social Statistics Division, Economics Statistics Division, and Statistical Services Division. The Statistical information's are produced by Population & Social Statistics Division and Economic Statistics Division and made available to users at various frequencies through Statistical Service Division. This third Division also provides computer services and administrative support services.

Technical cooperation with other statistical organisations

The NSO has been actively involved in maintaining close linkages with the UN and all other statistical agencies in the region and has been working with the APEC Working Group on Trade and Investment Data towards establishing a database for Trade and Investment data flows between APEC member countries. Consultancies organised between UN and other agencies, SPC, UNDP, UNFPA, ESCAP and the ABS, ADB, IMF, CBS, SNZ have been maintained since. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has been a good partner and is continuously providing assistance in Training, Technical Assistance, and funded NSO projects. This year the UN has identified a Consultant to study the possibility of improving the Systems of National Accounts and as well as installation of a relevant computer software to process the National Accounts data. Also SPC Consultant has been identified to undertake the Re-basing of the CPI. These two assignments are expected to commence in October and November 1999 respectively.

Other state agencies

The "National Statistical Service Act" covers the National Statistical Office and all statistical units established in other state agencies. The NSO is responsible for the promotion, co-ordination and development of statistics in Papua New Guinea. In view of this responsibility, the NSO will look on with concern regarding the statistical capability and performances of other statistical units. There has been a good degree of political administrative decentralization and the NSO is no exceptional, and needs to be in a position to carry out a much more active role in the development of statistics at all levels (national, provincial and local levels). Although generating statistics which are timely, reliable and relevant should be treated with a high level of priority, it has not been the case in all statistical units. Most of the statistical units produce statistics that they are only capable of producing and obviously the statistics they produce do not have full coverage of such statistics. Similarly, the NSO sometimes runs into similar problem basically because of the difficulties highlighted in the earlier Chapters. In view of this and in order to meet national, provincial and local level statistical needs, the Provincial Statistical Officers (PSO) have been identified to execute statistical activities in the Provinces so that the statistical activities in this area can be executed with less problems. The NSO has also another intention of considering establishing a position of a Statistical Officer for every district. These personnel's role is to collect statistics at the District level to meet individual need of LLGS. In other word, the infrastructure for censuses and statistical surveys at this level will be the responsibility of such personnel. This will further promote statistics at this level.

National statistical service

In principle, every provincial department should have a statistical unit in the National Statistical Office. In practice, some Provinces have not got a separate unit with responsibility for statistical activity but have merely allocated the task to an Officer, such as a research or planning office, who has other duties as well. The following National Departments and Agencies have a unit, which have direct bearing on the NSO.

Organisation/Agency producing statistics

Bank of Papua New Guinea Banking; economic activity Bureau of Water Resources; Water use & flow statistics Cocoa Board Export & Production of cocoa Coffee Industry Board Export & Production of coffee Commission for Higher Education Tertiary enrolment & staff Copra Marketing Board Export & Production of copra Dept of Agriculture & Livestock Agricultural economics data; small holder agriculture; crop survey Dept of Civil Aviation Aviation statistics Dept of Corrective Institutions Detainee and staff statistics Dept of Education School Enrolment & Staff Dept of Forests Forestry Market Information Dept of Health Health Statistics Dept of Home Affairs & Youth Youth Activity statistics Dept of Minerals & Energy Mineral Productions statistics Dept of Personnel Management Public Service Employment Dept of Police Crime and Arrests statistics Dept of Transport Transport; Shipping; Freight statistics Electoral Commission Electoral roll & voting statistics Electricity Commission Electricity generation Forestry Industries Council Timber production Insurance Commissioner Insurance statistics Magisterial Services District & Local court statistics National Broadcasting Commission Audience research National Housing Corporation NHC dwelling stock National Weather Services Weather & climate statistics Post & Telecommunication Corporation Number of phone; Volumes of mail.