Public statistics aims at providing reliable and objective information among others on the present economic, demographic and social condition of the state. In this respect the Supreme Audit Office and the Central Statistical Office have very similar objectives. During the meeting of the Management Boards headed by the Presidents of both institutions - Krzysztof Kwiatkowski and Janusz Witkowski - discussed ways of benefiting from this similarity. NIK and GUS have a lot to offer to each other and combining these efforts may be very profitable for the society.
The concept of strengthening cooperation between Supreme Audit Institutions and National Statistical Institutions is also close to Eurostat which sees there an opportunity to improve reliability of data used for the sake of the excessive deficit procedure. A special task force is conducting works now to check if it can be done and if so, in what way. The point is to make sure this cooperation is of benefit to citizens and at the same time falls within the mandates of individual institutions.
So far NIK has frequently used GUS data, studies and publications during the audit preparation and for the needs of its final reports. NIK could cooperate with GUS much closer, though.
During the meeting GUS presented its new tools to provide statistical data. They will be popularised at NIK. At the same time NIK representatives suggested joint works on a new approach to the budget audit. Cooperation could also involve defining ratios of the quality of public tasks performance by local governments.
The meeting participants agreed that NIK would invite GUS soon to provide its opinion on several programmes of next year's audits related to the establishment of the state debt level.
Photos due to the courtesy of GUS.
