With restructuring of the Central Statistical Office (CSO) already in progress, acting director of statistics Sean O'Brien said he was surprised by statements from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Moody's and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) about problems with the availability of data in T&T.
He said he reviewed the reports produced by those international bodies and found the data did not directly originate from CSO.
"The problem that this illustrates is that there needs to be a co-ordination and a strengthening of the national statistical system," he said,
O'Brien explained that the CSO collects data from different sources within the system but "when a National Statistical System (NSS) is not well co-ordinated, when the ties that bind the NSS are fairly weak, then data that emanates from the NSO (national statistical office) tends not to be of the highest quality."
The NSS must be co-ordinated according to law by the director of statistics and the CSO.
"Unfortunately in T&T that humongous broad mandate far exceeds the authority of the director of statistics and the CSO. What happens is that there are the various elements or arms or bodies within the NSS that produce data in an uncoordinated way," he said.
O'Brien said poor co-ordination of data that has led to the CSO being criticised about the quality and timeliness of statistics .
"A problem that emanates from that situation is that stakeholders then turn their attention to the statistical office and say we need institutional strengthening, we need to build a taller building, put more computers in there, get more PHD's and we do these institutional constructs and strengthening exercises, often at the expense of the systemic changes that are needed. I fear this may very well be the case in T&T."
O'Brien spoke at a regional workshop on Information and Communication Technology Indicators and Policy at the Trinidad Hilton and Conference Centre. He said the vision for the restructured CSO would be that it would exist "outside of the confines of Central Government and therefore obtain the necessary independent and autonomy needed to effectively coordinate and manage the national statistical system."
He said reviewing of legislation is "well on its way" with the new agency expected by January 1, 2017.
"Therefore the CSO would become the NSI and the necessary autonomy and authority would be granted to this new organisation to co-ordinate a national statistical system and thereby serve our stakeholders with greater efficacy," O'Brien said.