Main topics

• Local governments in Norway

• KOSTRA: Background, purpose, history and organisation

• Data and key figures

• Electronic chain of reporting

• Publishing

• Use of the statistics

Local Governments in Norway

• The regional level: 18 Counties

• The local level: 433 Municipalities - from 250 to 500 000 inhabitants

• Responsible for important services– schools, health care, care for the elderly, water, wastewater

treatment, garbage removal, fire protection ....

• Use about 17 per cent of GDP

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The chain of reporting before KOSTRAThe chain of reporting before KOSTRA

Municipal agency

Municipality Govern-ment agency

Ministry Statistics Norway

KOSTRA’s purposes

• Better information about the local authorities – Coherent system – Comparability - benchmarking– Timeliness

• More efficient reporting– No data redundancy– Electronic data reporting

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KOSTRA’sKOSTRA’s chainchain ofof reportingreporting Municipal agency

Municipality Govern-mental agencies

Ministries Statistics Norway

Better information - organisation

• Task forces (for kindergartens, primary schools, etc.) make annual reports:

– Changes in the reporting – Coordination to avoid double reporting– Reduce the burden of reporting

• The Council for KOSTRA discusses the reports

• The ministries responsible for the reporting and SN makes the formal decision

Coherent information system

Recourceallocation

Services and users

Requirements(population characteristics)

Productivity

Priority Coverage

Accounting regulations

• Classification by Function, example:– 201 Kindergarten – 211 Extra care for children in kindergartens– 221 Localities and transport for children in kindergartens

• Classification by Types of Expenditure, ex:– Services produced by the municipalities– Services bought from others (private companies, other

municipalities or the state)– Transfers

Electronic Data Reporting (EDR)

• Both the national authorities and the municipalities need statistical information - FAST!

• KOSTRA collects information 15 February, year n+1

• KOSTRA publishes the first figures 15 march, year n+1

• This timetable is only possible with electronic data reporting

Client systems

Accounts

Electronic form

Statistics Norway

SMT STT

Metadatabase

WWWpublishing

Municipality

Statistical auditing systems

KPD

External data

Electronic control of data

• Before reporting– Controls in the electronic forms– Control program for file extracts

• When SN receive data– Control program for file extracts (the same as before

reporting)• Auditing systems in SN

• The municipalities have the ultimate responsibility for correct reporting and data quality

KOSTRA calendar

• 15.1. Reporting of file extracts for client data from municipalities (year n-1)

• 15.2. Reporting of other data from the municipalities (year n-1)

• 15.3. Publishing of data (not revised figures) (year n-1)• 15.4. Reporting of corrected data from municipalities (year n-1)• 15.6. Publishing of revised data (year n-1)

• 30.6. Annual reports from the task forces• 1.10. Final decision about reporting (year n)• 1.10. Final decision about changing of file extracts (year n+1) • 1.11. Letter to the municipalities with information about

reporting (year n)

Users of the statistics

• The central authorities• Municipalities• The Association of Local Authorities: A project to help

municipalities start benchmarking within networks. • SN have arranged courses for local politicians in how to find

and use the data. • The figures are used in research • The press uses the figures• And the national accounts get much better specifications

Conclusions

• The Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development’s involvement helped a lot: By giving status, opening doors and funding much of the costs

• Organization was important: Close contact with both the local and the central governments

• Benefits for Statistics Norway: Improved data, electronic reporting, new systems for auditing, processing and publishing statistics

• KOSTRA has been an expensive, long-lasting project, but is still considered a success due to the benefits for the many users of the statistics