The National Statistics Office is carrying out its duties in the best possible way, but it is important that its weaknesses are identified as such and not “swept under the carpet”, according to Finance Minister Edward Scicluna.

Addressing a press conference yesterday, Prof. Scicluna said the ministry will pour more resources into the Malta Statistics Authority (MSA) and will move it away from the Lascaris building it shares with the NSO to strengthen the former and avoid errors from the latter.

In October, the minister had called for an investigation after the NSO reported that a mistake during data compilation had been noted. The GDP growth was given at 1.7 per cent when, on recalculation, it stood at 3.6 per cent.

The MSA, which regulates the NSO, engaged a foreign expert to evaluate the agency’s strengths and weaknesses.

The EU is imposing stricter rules on national statistics agencies

Prof. Scicluna explained that the EU was imposing stricter rules and stronger governance on national statistics agencies.

Figures on debt, deficit and other benchmarks were vital to strengthen the eurozone. Sanctions were imposed whenever a country stepped out of line, such as the excessive deficit procedure.

MSA chairman Albert Leone Ganado said the weaknesses were being identified and acted upon.

The NSO lacked a central data base or a common data “repository”, he said. Information was being passed between units manually, through a pen drive.

Spreadsheets were the formats most frequently used, which was not the best practice as it did not enable traceability.

There was also a lack of documentation of the procedures adopted by the agency.

All the procedures used are currently being compiled, and points of improvement will be subsequently identified.

There has also been an increase in checks, especially in what are termed as relational and economical checks. Generally, Prof. Leone Ganado explained, faults would be detected not because data was missing but because “it did not quite add up”.

All suspicions and abnormalities will be logged as error reports which will be dealt with by the most competent departments.

A board comprising the NSO, the government’s Economic Planning Division and the Central Bank has also been revived to flag any queries that served to highlight that something was wrong.

Press releases sent out the media will be clearer to avoid any misinterpretations.