In the last decades, theoretical research and managerial practice have intensified and permitted the crystallization of some concepts, methods and new instruments for analysis and prediction of the status and evolution of a national statistical system.The legal frame of official statistics, The national statistical system, Centralized and decentralized statistical systems

Secareanu Constantin

English

Research Papers in Economics

689 
 
ROMANIAN STATISTICS – CURRENT CHALLENGES 
 
Secareanu Constantin  
Romanian-American  University,  Bucharest  Faculty:  Economy  of  Intern  and  International 
Tourism  Barbu  Nicolae  str.  No.  6,  bl.  13,  sc.  3,  et.  4,  ap.  52,  sector  4,  Bucharest  e-mail : 
constantin.secareanu@yahoo.com tel. : 0720 251 807, home: 021 634 47 90 
 
In  the  last  decades,  theoretical  research  and  managerial  practice  have  intensified  and  permitted  the 
crystallization of some concepts, methods and new instruments for analysis and prediction of the status and 
evolution of a national statistical system. 
This paper presents the presently major identified tendencies of a statistical agency, its impact over the 
national statistical system’s evolution, as well as a series of strategic elements of perspective. 
 
Key  words:  The  legal  frame  of  official  statistics,  The  national  statistical  system,  Centralized  and 
decentralized statistical systems 
 
JEL Classification: K2 
 
1. Preliminary considerations 
The official Romanian statistics had to recover, after 1989, at least two essential handicaps:  
independence and credibility, both severely shaken in the 80’s. The statisticsman’s task was more 
difficult, as the economic, political and social environment in those years were unfavorable: 
economic downfall, social movements, syndical withdrawals and political disputes. With all the 
inherent difficulties, the actions were aimed toward change, for promoting the modern methods 
of statistical research, for processing and dissemination. 
A new legal frame was adopted, where the fundamental principles of the workings of statistics  
would  be  found,  wholly  copied  from  the  Governmental  Ordnance  nr.  9/1992  (with  all  the 
upcoming modifications and completions) and became the value set for the National Institute of 
Statistics (NIS), through which regaining the respect of different categories of suppliers were 
sought, as well as benefitting from statistical information and data of the public opinion. 
The objectives, measures and actions enterprise were conjugated, concentrated and covered all  
these aspects: 
-  the change of concepts, instrument inventory and statistical research methods; 
-  the professional forming of statistical personnel and the management of human resources; 
-  the equipment of high performance and the administration of information technology; 
-  internal and international cooperation. 
As a result, we’re assisting to – presently – to the creation of a new image of official statistics, a  
slow, very difficult and sometimes contradictory process, through which statistical information is 
published through media and is accessible to all users, whatever their revealed tendencies. 
Romanian statistics has engaged itself in the process of readapting to the European standards,  
through the harmonization and progressive integration in the European Statistics System (ESS). 
Thus,  since  January  1
st,  2007,  the  National  Institute  of  Statistics  (NIS)  in  Romania  is  the 
beneficiary of ESS membership, actively participating in the European legislative process and 
statistics management. 
 
2. The actual general context 
In the last decades, theoretical research and managerial practice have intensified and permitted 
the crystallization of some concepts, methods and new instruments for analysis and prediction of 
the status and evolution of a national statistical system. 
The starting point, in the present case, is the outlining of the three major tendencies identified for  
every public entity, but that much more for a statistical agency. 690 
 
A.  The first tendency consists of shifting from focusing managerial preoccupations almost  
exclusively on the internal situation of the agency, to subordinating the majority of activities to a 
considerable opening to the exterior, to the environmental factors with important impact. 
In our crosshairs we have at least two elements that, presently, can become both opportunities 
and threats: 
1.  On  one  hand,  the  satisfaction  of  the  users’  necessities  for  statistical  information  (The 
government, ministries, local authorities, the academic environment and scientific research,   
- the business environment, the press, the overall public, national institutions); their necessities   
- must be identified and studied differentially, for each category separately, then the types of    
- future demands must be anticipated, and the observations made be included in the   
- formulation of priorities in the plans of action; From this point of view,  Romanian statistics   
- has to act in more directions: 
- satisfaction with the priority of European demands, in the context of a simultaneous   
- increase of the satisfaction degree of statistics data needs of the internal users; 
- the implementation of the statistics System of regional development in unison  
- with the adopted administrative, territorial and statistics structures; 
- the development of a high quality integrated simultaneous dissemination System,   
- comparative to the best systems; 
- the implementation of an opinion surveillance System, of positive or negative comments   
- addressed to the statistic, through research about the opinion and trust that data users   
- invoke in rapport with a series of statistics indicators; 
- contracting one of the acute risks, that of the apparition of imbalances between research and 
new statistical data (more and more numerous) and human and financial resources   
- available, through prioritizing activities in statistics and the optimal allocation of resources. 
2. On the other hand, the policy toward respondent targets avoiding the useless delay of data    
- suppliers, through the reduction of “the burden of statistical reports”; Not excluded, should be   
- the possibility that, in the near future, primary data collection will become the primary threat,   
- if it hasn’t become already. The more and more frequently met phenomenon of the growth of   
- the non-response rate, especially in the case of small enterprises and of the populations’   
- farms, it must be contracted through the improvement and diversification of data sources,   
- through identification and attraction in the international circuit, in greater measure, of  
- administrative complementary data sources. 
B.  The second tendency identified is derived from the characteristics of the period we live in,  
when  continuity  records  inflexion  points,  discontinuities,  movements  more  numerous  and 
accelerated,  of  changes  that  know  amplitudes  and  depths  previously  unreached  (from  an 
economic, political and social standpoint). From here results the obligation to raise the decisional 
reaction time, simultaneously with increasing the flexibility of actions, indispensable in case of 
unforeseen  changes.  The  reactions  of  a  national  statistics  system  can  be  very  different.  The 
successful passing through a sometimes “turbulent” environment, most of the times “changing” 
and rarely “stable” are decisively influenced by the general characteristics of the statistic system: 
Coherence and force, or, oppositely, frailty and continuous pressure. 
Counteracting the possible negative effects is done by creating and actualizing a unified and 
uncontradictory  systematic  legal  frame  of  organization  and  function  of  a  national  statistical 
system that clarifies a series of problems and permits the overtaking of some dissfunctionalities 
and the elimination of voids: 
1.  The  subordination/autonomy  of  the  institution  demands  the  existence  of  an  independent 
statistical leadership (at a central and local level), uninfluenced by political groups; 
2. The duration of an agency leadership mandate should not be similar to that of the executive;   
Thus, in some EU member states and in the USA, a limited (a number of years time) mandate  
is practiced, that can be renewed, not affecting the continuity of statistical programs; 691 
 
3. The national statistical system components, the mechanisms and functional relationships  
between the primary actors of the system, as well as its slope of coordination and  
communication between different structures (interinstitutional committees and collaboration   
conventions); Thus appears the necessity of creating statistical compartments within public  
institutions’ administrations, central and local, as well as other public authorities. 
 
The  adoption of a  new  statistics  law,  in  concordance  with the  actual state  of  Romania as a 
Member  State  of  the  European  Union  consequentially  appears  as  justified,  with  standards, 
mission, vision and functions that Romanian statistics proposes to exercise in the context of full 
integration in the European Statistical System. 
As well, in this cadre, statistics will succeed in offering the adequate answers to challenges and  
ample changes present and in society’s perspective, in the context of the economic and financial 
crisis, globalization, the competitively growing in intensity, the affirmation and development of 
international society. 
C.  Finally, the third identified tendency  is that of institutionalizing innovation, finalized 
through the realization of new statistical research, as well as perfecting the existent research. 
This tendency must be encouraged through custom (specific) coordination instruments such as:  
methodologies, classifications and nomenclatures, statistical registries, information technology, 
the recruitment and professional personnel training. The crucial instrument for the increase of the 
innovation capacity is the budget of the agency (including the external unrefundable funds). 
In this context we mention the quantification efforts through statistical indicators of problems  
regarding  durable  development,  rural  development,  globalization,  regional  development, 
competitively, the interaction of economic development – social development, the environment, 
etc. 
The infusion of technical support, methodological and operational, has given Romanian statistics 
the possibility of making significant progress and touching, in more domains, the quality and 
comparability of the solicited data, compatible with that of the other EU member states, data 
aligned to the international standards. 
In the future, actions must be made in the direction of totally implementing the European Code of  
Good Practice in Statistics and of all the elements of the Management of Total Quality. 
 
3. The typology of national statistical systems 
There’s a diversity of statistical systems in the world. 
- at one extremity there’s the centralized system, where a single institution (usually an  
- autonomous governmental agency) is responsible to the majority of official statistics   
 (Australia, Canada, Mexico); even in this situation, the collection of some statistics lies  
 within the responsibility of other institutions (the agricultural statistics, work statistics,   
 environmental statistics, financial statistics, etc.); 
- at the other extremity we meet the decentralized system, in which numerous statistical  
agencies are annexed on certain domains (USA). This is institutional decentralization, that    
demands the existence other profiled institutions, outside the agency, for example:   
demography and population counts, social statistics, external commercial statistics, price   
statistics, education and health statistics, etc., distinct institutions, that usually don’t need the  
existence of a coordinating authority. 
- there is, as well, a territorial (regional) decentralization, that needs coordination and  
control from the central statistical agency.  
Regarding the role of regional offices, more possible functioning choices: 
  1.  decentralization, that presumes a total subordination toward the central agency, the    
      regional office taking on routine duties in the aspect of collecting primary data and    
      eventually disseminating results; 692 
 
  2.  deconcentration, which is met in at least two situations: 
-  in the conditions of a risen autonomy of regional offices, a case where national   
centers (poles) can be created, that tend to processing and dissemination of statistics   
regarding a certain domain, taking on the responsibilities of coordination and   
control of the central agency. 
-  in the conditions that the regional offices are in the subordination of local   
authorities; this situation must be avoided, the double subordination not being    
recommended; domains of local interest can be developed based on partnerships   
between regional offices of statistics, the local authorities and the economic agents. 
 
4. Conclusions 
1.  No country in the world contains a single institution responsible for collecting and    
disseminating all official statistics. 
2.  Usually,  national  statistical  systems  aren’t  entirely  centralized  or  decentralized,  mixed 
statistical systems being often met, with asymmetry toward one or the other extreme  
alternatives. 
3. There is no unique recipe, the final objective being the growth of a complete national  
statistical system, tight and coherent, comparable with similar systems in the countries of the 
European Union (with the exception of those in federal government systems). 
4. A series of statistical system modifications are presently imposed on the national statistical 
system, based on a coherent strategy, with clear objectives on a medium and long term, targeting 
the  total  integration  of  Romanian  statistics  under  methodological  and  quality  aspect  in  the 
European Statistical System. The massive transfer of good practice in statistics will lead to the 
creation of a modern statistical system, organized on scientific bases and capable of offering 
efficiency, quality, promptitude and transparency to the official statistic. 
 
Bibliography 
1.  Secareanu  C.  ,  Gruiescu  M.  –  Statistics  –  concepts,  methods  and  basic  techniques.  Ed. 
Enciclopedica, Bucharest 
2. Voineagu V. , Dumitrescu I. , Stefanescu D. – Romanian Statistics on the road to integration 
in the European Statistical System, The Romanian Statistical Paper nr. 1 / 2007. 
3. *** Statistical organization manual, 3
rd edition, UN, 2003. 
   

Romanian Statistics on the road to integration in the European Statistical System, The Romanian Statistical Paper nr. 1 /

Statistical organization manual, 3 rd edition,

Statistics – concepts, methods and basic techniques.

ROMANIAN STATISTICS – CURRENT CHALLENGES

http://steconomice.uoradea.ro/anale/volume/2009/v2-economy-and-business-administration/115.pdf

ROMANIAN STATISTICS – CURRENT CHALLENGES

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