NSO & ABG Sign MOU for Census

The National Statistical Office and the Autonomous Bougainville Government has signed a Memorandum of Agreement to share costs for the Census roll-out mid this year.

Acting National Statistician John Igitoi said the NSO is partnering with provincial administrations to share costs.

The Autonomous Region of Bougainville was the first to establish this partnership.

Officers of the National Statistical Office are now traveling the Eastern part of the highlands region to create similar Memorandum of Agreements with Provincial Administrations in cost-sharing. 

Acting National Statistician John Igitoi said the NSO is positioning itself to cut costs.

With the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, they’ve agreed to share costs in areas like publicity and vehicle hires.

“And on topof this Memorandum of Agreement, it would become an annex to the Bougainville Executive Counci meeting’s approval of those funding agreements that we requested. And as I said, NSO is on the coordinator. We will be custodian of that information (census data), but provinces will be the owners of those statistics and they will utilise it.”

Mr Igitoi said the census data should become the common denominator of policy planning and development progress; to help craft legislation, policies, locate resources – all which are evidence based.

In the census exercise, the NSO will capture information such as the type of activities or work people do, and what level of education they have.

With the 50 percent cut to the proposed 2 million Kina budget, the NSO is now being strategic about how it is carrying out preparation work.

With the 100 million kina the government has allocated, Mr Igitoi said they are well aware of the 30 to 40 million kina budget deficit, but it should not affect the process.

Author: 
Salome Vincent