The Experience of Quality Assurance Review in the Census and Statistics Department of Hong Kong, Chi

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The Experience of Quality Assurance Review in
the Census and Statistics Department of Hong
Kong, China
Mr. Hing-Wang Fung Census and Statistics
Department Hong Kong, China (Email
hwfung_at_censtatd.gov.hk)
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Product Quality

• Quality dimensions of the final products as
  expected by users
• i. Relevance
• ii. Accuracy
• iii. Timeliness
• iv. Consistency
• v. Coherence
• vi. Accessibility

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Process Quality

• CSD as producer of statistical products
• takes the product quality dimensions into account
  when designing and managing statistical systems
• assures the quality of final products by properly
  implementing and monitoring the input processes

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Quality Assurance Approach

• CSD adopts the producer perspective in
  establishing the QA mechanism and mainly focuses
  on assuring the quality of the processes that
  generate the statistical products

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Quality Assurance Approach (Continued)

• Focuses on the following key statistical
  processes
• Frame compilation
• Sample selection
• Data collection
• Data editing and amendment
• Estimation and imputation
• Macro data review
• Revision of provisional statistics
• Report compilation

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Established Practice of QA

• Quality-oriented organisational culture
• Dissemination of statistics - in full compliance
  with the IMFs Special Data Dissemination
  Standard
• Quality assessment on specific statistical
  systems with reference to international
  guidelines best illustrated by the application
  of IMFs Data Quality Assessment Framework to
  quality assessment on BoP statistics

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Established Practice of QA (Continued)

• Primary responsibility in regard to QA of
  individual systems falls on the subject
  professionals
• Adoption of internationally accepted definitions,
  concepts and methods
• Establishment of necessary procedures and
  mechanism to achieve the desired product quality

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New Initiatives

• An independent QA review team formed in 2002 to
• A. promote initial QA review by encouraging
  subject professionals to perform self-assessment
  cum enhancement of individual statistical systems
  through knowledge/experience sharing and
  benchmarking and
• B. conduct in-depth third-party QA review

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A. Promotion of Self-assessment cum Enhancement
in Initial QA Review

• 1. The QA review team starts the QA review on a
  few statistical systems (starts with the data
  collection process and then proceeds to other
  statistical processes)
• 2. The team generalises the experience to draw up
  a general framework
• 3. Subject professionals conducts initial QA
  review by performing self-assessment cum
  enhancement of their own statistical systems with
  reference to the general framework

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2. QA review team shares the salient observations
with the subject professionals of other field
teams not yet selected for the management audit
Initial QA Review on Fieldwork System

• 1. QA review team conducts management audits on
  selected field teams

3. Subject professionals conduct
self-assessment cum enhancement of their own
fieldwork systems accordingly
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Initial QA Review on Other Statistical Processes

• QA review team starts with documentation review
  as good documentation can
• facilitate assessment of the presence and
  adequacy of procedures and mechanism to assure
  quality of the input processes
• ascertain proper implementation of the laid down
  procedures
• assist all levels of staff in carrying out their
  jobs properly

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Initial QA Review on Other Statistical Processes
- Documentation Review

• Findings
• The documentation review on selected statistical
  systems indicates that
• documentation of methodology/concepts is
  generally available and of sufficient details
• documentation of work procedures, in particular
  regarding the quality-oriented procedures and
  mechanism, can be further enriched
• Action
• On the basis of the above, the QA review team
  designs a general framework of minimum
  documentation requirement

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Initial QA Review on Other Statistical Processes
- General Framework of Minimum Documentation
Requirement

• The documentation for each statistical process
  should cover at least
• a) At theoretical and methodological level
• i. Theoretical basis of the adopted methodologies
  to ensure adherence to scientific principles and
  international standards

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Initial QA Review on Other Statistical Processes
- General Framework of Minimum Documentation
Requirement (Continued)

• b) At production level
• i. Detailed work procedures for reference by all
  levels of staff
• ii. Control measures to ensure observance of
  standards and instructions
• iii. Evaluative indicators to reflect performance
  of the process

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2. QA review team establishes general
framework of minimum documentation requirement
Initial QA Review on Other Statistical Processes

• 1. QA review team conducts documentation review
  on selected statistical systems

3. Subject professionals conduct
self-assessment on the availability, adequacy and
updatedness of documentation
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5. Subject professionals enhance both the
processes themselves and the relevant
documentation as appropriate
Initial QA Review on Other Statistical Processes
(Continued)

• 4. Subject professionals draw up an action plan
  on areas requiring further enhancement

6. Subject professionals provide an assessment on
the quality of statistical outputs in terms of
the various quality dimensions
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B. Conduct of Third-party QA Review

• On top of the self-assessment in initial QA
  review
• Enhances the integrity of the QA mechanism
• The QA review team conducts record checks and
  in-depth review with a view to providing
  third-party professional advice
• Third-party QA reviews have started on several
  fieldwork management systems and statistical
  systems in the Department

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Long-term Goals

• To build up a central database on best practices
  in QA adopted in individual statistical systems
• To develop a quality assessment framework in the
  Department to facilitate both qualitative and
  quantitative assessment of the quality level
  achieved in individual statistical systems

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• Thank you !

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The Experience of Quality Assurance Review in
the Census and Statistics Department of Hong
Kong, China
Mr. Hing-Wang Fung Census and Statistics
Department Hong Kong, China (Email
hwfung_at_censtatd.gov.hk)