Central Statistical Office (CSO)
Mr Peter Pariag, Director of Statistics, is the Head of the
Central Statistical Office.
The Central Statistical Office is charged with the responsibility
for administering the Statistics Act, Chapter 19:02 of the Revised
Laws of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago 1982.
The Core Functions of the CSO derive from the provisions of the
Statistics Act under which the Director of Statistics has
responsibility for conducting Population, Agricultural and
Industrial Surveys and Censuses; collecting, compiling, analyzing
and publishing high quality, timely and relevant statistical
information relating to the different sectors of the Economy of
Trinidad and Tobago; collaborating with other Government Departments
in the collection, compilation, analysis and publication of
statistical data on a continuous and timely basis; and organizing
and maintaining a coordinated set of economic and social statistics
relating to Trinidad and Tobago consistent with International
Standards.
Core Functions
- Data Collection – collecting accurate primary and secondary
data in a timely and efficient manner;
- Data Processing – transforming raw data into information;
- Data Analysis – analyzing and evaluating of statistical
data;
- Data Dissemination – providing publications and information
to a wide range of users;
- Improvement and Development of Products – conducting
methodological revisions of existing products and development of
new products;
- Consultancy – providing technical assistance in sample
design and conduct of surveys and in the provision of geographic
information services.
Achievements
The Economic Statistics Division has continued to work towards the
improvement of the timeliness of the statistics prepared within the
Division and to disseminate this data in a format that satisfies the
requirements of the key stakeholders.
The officer-in-charge and staff of the Trade Section at Customs
House must be commended for their determination in eliminating the
backlog, which existed in the editing of the C-82 Customs
Declaration documents. Notwithstanding this achievement, problems in
other parts of the production chain have continued to affect the
release dates of the Monthly Trade Bulletin.
During the year under review the Economic Statistics Division was
reorganized for greater effectiveness and cohesion and to re-align
related functional areas. The Travel Statistics was separated from
the Trade Section and integrated into a Travel and Tourism
Statistics Section, which for the moment is directly supervised by
the Head of Division.
The work schedule of the Index of Retail Prices has been separated
from the Economic Indicators Section and a new Prices Section has
been created. The Section is now under the supervision of a
Statistician I who reports directly to the Statistician 11 in the
division. These organizational arrangements are tentative and still
under review. At the appropriate time, the Index of Producer Prices
and the Index of Retail Prices of Building Materials will be
integrated into the Prices Section.
The CSO received approval from the Chief Personnel Officer for the
payment of Price Intelligence Officers on contract to service the
section. The approval was given after the expiry of the Memorandum
of Understanding between the CSO and the Central Bank of Trinidad
and Tobago. A new note for Cabinet is being drafted to seek approval
for the recruitment of Price Intelligence Officers on contract for a
term of two (2) to three (3) years, pending the restructuring of the
Central Statistical Office.
The Management Information System for Tourism (MIST) application
used in the processing of the Immigration Embarkation/Dis-embarkation
(E/D) Cards was upgraded through technical support from an
independent consultant recruited on the recommendation of the
Caribbean Tourism Organization. The upgrade would improve the
accuracy of the statistics obtained from the Performance Module of
the MIST and when completed would ensure timely responses to data
users.
During the period under review with the assistance from Qure
Enterprises Limited, a SPSS syntax was developed for the processing,
analysis and preparation for tables of the Carnival Survey of
Departing Visitors. The project would allow subsequent surveys to be
analyzed faster following the receipt of a `clean’ data file after
scanning.
Challenges
The Economic Statistics Division continues to confront many
challenges in the effort to achieve its goals and objectives.
Deterioration in the industrial relations climate within the
Computer Division has resulted in a withdrawal of enthusiasm and has
affected the timely processing of the Trade Statistics, much to the
chagrin of data users. Despite the best efforts of the Trade Customs
Section to bring the editing and coding of the Custom Declarations
up-to-date, the Division has still not been able to obtain the trade
tabulations on a sufficiently timely basis, because of this action.
The Head of Division requests that the management of the CSO and the
EDP manager do all in their power to address the concerns of the
staff and improve the industrial relations climate so that the
production of Trade and other statistics would not be affected.
The Economic Statistics Division has lost several experienced
members of staff, due to retirement, no-pay leave arrangements and
acting arrangements outside of the Division. In addition, in the
last quarter of the year under review significant man-hours were
lost on account of mal-functioning air-condition units, lack of
water and pile driving taking place on an adjoining construction
site.
Another important challenge to the timely processing of statistics
in the Economic Statistics Division has been the limited and
obsolete equipment available to some members of staff. The Prices
and the MIST Sections need new equipment for their local area
networks. There is also the need for the immediate creation of an
additional position of statistician I, and the establishment of a
field staff dedicated to collecting statistical returns for the
Division.
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