KOSTRA MunicipalityState Reporting Experiences from Norway

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KOSTRA - Municipality/State ReportingExperiences
from Norway

• Anne-Britt Svinnset
• Statistics Norway

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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

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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 KOSTRA
Municipal agency
Municipality
Govern-ment agency
Ministry
Statistics Norway
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Project history

• 1995-1996 Pilot project
• Four municipalities
• 1998-2001 Project continues
• Increasing number of municipalities - all in
  2001
  
• Further development of the system
• 2002 - - - KOSTRA established

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KOSTRAs 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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KOSTRAs chain of reporting
Municipal agency
Municipality
Ministries
Govern-mental agencies
Statistics Norway
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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

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Coherent information system
Recource allocation
Productivity
Services and users
Priority
Coverage
Requirements (population characteristics)
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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

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Electronic Data Reporting (EDR)

• Both the national authorities and the
  municipalities need statistical information -
  FAST!
  
• KOSTRA collects information 15 February, year
  n1
  
• KOSTRA publishes the first figures 15 march, year
  n1
  
• This timetable is only possible with electronic
  data reporting

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External data
Municipality
Electronic form
Statistics Norway
Metadatabase
WWW publishing
KPD
STT
SMT
Client systems
Accounts
Statistical auditing systems
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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
  

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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 n1)
  
• 1.11. Letter to the municipalities with
  information about reporting (year n)

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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
  

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Conclusions

• The Ministry of Local Government and Regional
  Developments 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