Page 228 - Invited Paper Session (IPS) - Volume 2

IPS224 Jean-Michel Durr
maintain professionalism and demonstrate neutrality and objectivity in the
presentation and interpretation of the results and are free from real or
perceived political interference so that the objectivity and impartiality of the
statistics is assured, because this in turn will build trust in and acceptance of
the results.
The question is thus how avoid political interference in census operations.
The first response is to have appropriate legislation ensuring the
independence of official statistics. This is even more needed as in many
countries, the National Statistical Office (NSO) or the Census Agency is part of
the public administration, organised/subordinated to under the responsibility
of a line minister. European Member States have to comply with the European
Statistics Code of Practice, of which first principle is professional
independence, meaning that the independence of the National Statistical
Institutes from political and other external interference in the production,
production and dissemination of statistics is enshrined in law and guaranteed
2
for other statistical authorities . Statistics acts in various countries, as South
Africa, include provision related to the sole responsibility of the Chief
Statistician to determine, and exercise final responsibility regarding the data
collection, methodology, and dissemination of statistics.
This entails that the National Statistical Office or the Census Agency should
be entrusted with the full responsibility of conducting the population and
housing census, including designing, conducting the operation, processing
and disseminating the results. National Census Commissions, when existing,
should restrict their role to support to the census, but not to decide on the
content of the census questionnaire and the methodology. In North
Macedonia, the Statistical Office was by law deprived of full responsibility for
the census 2011. The law provided that “the Census is organized and
conducted by the State Census Commission in co-operation with the State
Statistical office”. The Commission felt entitled to challenge the methodology
proposed by the State Statistical Office, which was in compliance with
international recommendations, creating a confusing situation on the ground,
leading to the cancellation of census operations after ten days.
This of course does not mean that the Statistical Office shall decide on its
own on the content of the questionnaire and not organize stakeholders’
consultations. In that regard, Statistical Councils composed of representatives
of users, from governmental departments, the public sector, civil society
organizations and the private sector, are useful institutions to ensure that the

2 European statistics Code of Practice - revised edition 2017. Available from:
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/4031688/8971242/KS-02-18-142-EN-
N.pdf/e7f85f07-91db-4312-8118-f729c75878c7
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