STATISTICS LITHUANIA PROCEDURE FOR MONITORING THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PEER REVIEW

1. STATISTICS LITHUANIA PROCEDURE FOR MONITORING THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PEER REVIEW Audronė Miškinienė Head of European Integration and International Co-operation division MGSC

2. TIMING 2006, December – Preparationfor Peer review 2007, April – PR in SL 2007, November – SL certified ISO 9001 standard 2010, October – SL recertified ISO 9001:2008 2007, May & December – participation in PR exercises in Slovenia & Luxembourg 2011 – participation in Global Assessment of the National System of Official Statistics of the Ukraine 2012 – participation in Adapted Global Assessment of the Natioal Statistical System of Moldova MGSC

3. PREPARATION Started 4 months before: PR contact person nominated & Preparatory team headed by Quality manager & 10 members established 2 months for inventory of SL documents: list of documents as optimal package (selected ~30), prioritize translation (entirely or summary versions) 2 months for user surveys: Questionnaire developed by Eurostat translated & circulated to main user groups. Response rate 62%. Over 70% assessed overall quality as high / very high 4 weeks for final PR programme: agreed with PR team & all stakeholders MGSC

4. SL COMPLIANCE BY COP PRINCIPLE, 2007 Source: Aggregated information from Peer review reports on Lithuania and other countries MGSC

5. LT IMPLEMENTED & FORESEEN ACTIONS BY COP PRINCIPLE MGSC

6. MONITORING Bureau Veritas Assessment of SL compliance with ISO standard – every 9 months Statistics Lithuania Monitoring of implementation of SL annual plans, measurement of SL quality indicators - quarterly Participationin the audit Report, remarks, recommendations Eurostat, ESGAB Assessment of LSS compliance with CoP - annual Monitoring of CoP implementation in other institutions producing official statistics - annual Reports, measurement results Decisions on improvement Filled questionnaires Report to the Parliament and the Council, recommendations Advisory Commission General report, recommendations, training Reports Other institutions producing official statistics MGSC

7. LESSONS LEARNT During Preparatory period: • Start preparation well in advance – preparatory actions tend to take longer than initially expected • Top management support is crucial. Initiatives for implementation of CoP principles moving from the top management down to every single employee – important to explain practical usefulness of the exercise and persuade to get actually involved • Preparatory team should be ready for an intensive work schedule & efficient supporting coordination activities must be available • Top management & Preparatory team should consider sequence of CoP implementation & system of documentation, distribute responsibilities for actual implementation, documentation & monitoring of each principle • Next step – detailed matrix or check-list of Action plan of the state-of-arts: principle, criterion, actions taken, responsible persons, evidence by documents, etc. • Peer review participants should be briefed about the objectives & functions – the key rule of any audit is to answer to the point & in brief, going into details only when requested • Keep close contacts with all stakeholders invited to the meetings (inform them about PR review tasks, remind about the meeting, etc.). If possible, personal contacts should be used to ensure participation in peer review meetings MGSC

8. During Peer review: • During Introductory meeting main points of compliance with CoP should be briefly presented • One of the main tasks – ensure that all stakeholders are active & free to express viewpoints & ideas • To appoint good coordinator to quickly orient in situation & make adequate amendments when necessary General comments: • To achieve better objectivity of PR exercise – highly important to have at least some team members the same during the entire period with the same instructions & training given to all of them • Due to different composition of PR teams & various types of questions each team tends to get into detail, the rating of countries under the review is very sensitive as subjectivity moment always exists (e. g. false impression due to not adequate English communication skills, etc.). MGSC

9. Eurostat’s initiative of Sponsorship on Quality in 2009 & its empowerment to revise European Statistics Code of Practice, alongside developing national & European Quality Assurance Framework highly appreciated • The Task Force developed a detailed QAF to identify possible activities, methods & tools to provide evidence for Principles 4 and 7, to 15 of the revised Code. This will lead to more objective assessment results. On-going activities to extend the QAF to remaining Principles of the Code & to accordingly plan next PR round opens the floor for elimination of many shortcomings. PRs should in future examine all Principles of Code of Practice for a selected number of domains, focusing on activities at an institutional level. Future PRs should also be extended to other statistical authorities where the production of European statistics is significant • The UN National QAF – 43rd session of UN Statistical Commission (website address: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/dnss/QualityNQAF/nqaf.aspx) MGCS