ANGUILLA

 

STATISTICS

DEPARTMENT

Progress Report

29th Meeting of the Standing Committee of Caribbean Statisticians

& 11th Meeting of Regional Census Co-ordinating Committee

 

 

November 22 - 25, 2004

Hamilton, Bermuda

 

 

Introduction

 

The past year has been very challenging and rewarding for the Statistics Department. We have ventured into new areas, with the hope of building up our quantum of statistics produced comparative with regional and international standards.

 

Two projects of which we are really excited about are proposals to the police and prison to create and maintain statistics for these departments and subsequently produce some indicators.

 

We have also undertaken some surveys for other ministries which also assist with the department covering it cost in it core functions as well as add to the data available on various areas of interest.

 

We trust that the coming year will be as exciting and challenging as the past year but this can will only be achieve with the commitment of staff and government as a whole to see statistics move forward and produce quality statistics for better decision-making.

 

Administration

 

Human Resources

 

The Statistics Department began the year with a compliment of six (6) permanent staff members.

 

These included:

1 Statistics Advisor

1 Chief Statistician

3 Statistical Officers

1 Statistical Assistant

 

During the year we had some departures and additions in various post but the complement of staff remained constant.

 

An effort was made to fill the post of Statistician but to date this has yet to be completed. There is also one other vacant post of Statistical Assistant, which the department is actively seeking to fill but due to constraints in other areas, the filling of this post has been regularly deferred.

 

However, in the absence of a full complement of staff the department has managed to achieve the targets set out at the beginning of the year through share hard work and dedication and some creative activities.

 

In an effort to expose students to the area of statistics and fulfil our social responsibility as a department, every year we employs summer student for duration of six weeks. This year it was timely and welcomed as we were able to employ three (3) summer student during the month of July who were able to assist us some of the mounting tasks, due to the absence of two permanent staff members who were on study leave.

 

During their six-week stay the summer students were able to assist by working on a number of special projects including some public communications’ material.

 

This attachment proved to be a very successful and worthwhile for both them and the department, as the students were able to complete tasks accurately and in a timely manner with very little supervision.

 

Training

 

There has been some training within the Department at all levels in the pass year. In March the Chief Statistician and the Statistical Officer with responsibility for Economic Statistics attended a one-week Balance of Payments course organised by CARTAC.

 

In mid-May the Statistical Officer with responsibility for economic statistics and the Statistical Assistant left for UTECH Jamaica to complete the Part 2 and commerce Part 1 respectively of their Certificate in Social and Economic Statistics. They returned in August after three months of studies with nothing but praise for the programmes as it assisted in building their knowledge base in statistics.

 

In September, the Chief Statistician, the Statistical Officer with responsibility for Economic Statistics and the Systems Technician from DITES attended a one-week Eurotrace workshop in St. Lucia organised by CARTAC. This course was to expose territories to the new window based version of Eurotrace. This proved to be a very insightful hands-on course. Anguilla has decided to, once the testing has been completed, move to the new windows based version, as it is a more user-friendly system.

 

Budget

 

The Department is forced to continue to find creative ways of supplementing it approved governmental budget to ensure that it meets its yearly needs and objectives.

 

This has been proving exciting and challenging, as we have been creating mechanisms through which our core programmes could be funded.

 

Statistics Advisory Committee

 

The Statistics Advisory Committee has met several times during the year to discuss a range of topics from, “Funding of Special Statistical Request” to a “proposed “Statistical System for Anguilla”.

 

The committee, which brings together personnel in various fields within government and the private sector, plays a very important role in providing an alternative perspective of the statistics that are in demand.

 

Anguilla Strategic Statistics Plan 2005 – 9

 

As part of the terms of reference of the Statistics Advisor, a statistics strategic plan was to be completed.

 

The department's approach to the development of this plan was to consult and have discussions, as many user or statistics as well as business and agencies and persons, who we thought, should use statistics that we presently produce.

 

We eventually ended up consulting over 20 local groups or individuals and some 20 regional and international agencies.

 

Feedback was very forthcoming and provided us with an insight into what the department’s strengths and weaknesses were. One common thread came out from most of the consultations that was that many businesses do not realise that there is a wealth of statistical data available to the public on Anguilla.

 

This suggests to us that there is a great need for an extensive public awareness campaign to be mounted by the department.

 

We culminated this project with a workshop in August of various groups of stakeholders to discuss the draft plan. The workshop was well attended and suggestions coming out of discussions were incorporated into the final plan.

 

 

Economic Statistics

 

Consumer Price Index

 

The Consumer Price Index, which is calculated quarterly, is available up to September 2004 and the publications can be found on the government website, at the statistics department link http://www.gov.ai/statistics/consumer.htm

 

The basket of goods and weights within some of the CPI groups is quickly becoming obsolete, as the prices collected for the goods collected in these categories are no longer relevant given the rapid changes being experienced in these sectors. One of these categories is the Transportation and Communications.

 

We anxiously await the 'green light' from the ECCB to commence household income and expenditure survey to be used in the reweighing and rebasing of the CPI.

 

Trade Statistics

 

The publication of the trade statistics is up to date, with the last publication being October 2004.

 

The Annual trade report along with all the trade statistics reports can be found at the following website link http://www.gov.ai/statistics/external.htm

 

The new development for Anguilla in this area, is that we have embarked on setting up a parallel system using the new windows based Eurotrace system with the hope of complete migration to this system during 2005.

 

Annual Business Surveys

 

The Business register continues to be updated on a monthly basis with information from many sources. Staff also spent many days in the field to collecting data on new businesses, which have recently opened to explain to owners the process of the ABS and to collect additional data to add to the register of 2004.

 

The Annual business surveys for 2004 are in the process of being reviewed and edited for distribution in the first week of December 2004.

 

The 2003 response to the ABS has shown an increase in the response rate. Respondent seem to be recognising that the survey will be an annual one and that the Department stands ready to assist them with the completion of the questionnaire are their request. There are still some pockets of resistance but we do not envisage that this will continue beyond 2005.

 

National Accounts

 

The estimates for the National Accounts have been completed and the publication is available on the government’s website at the Statistics Department’s link. These estimates were compiled through a collaborative effort of staff from the Anguilla Statistics Department and the staff of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB).

 

Supply and Use Tables

 

In May, National Accounts consultant, Ms. Ione Marshall spent one week in the Department assisting us, with the analysis of estimation of the National Accounts, with a view to gauging the amount of work necessary and the area in which work will have to be done to produce SUT’s for the year 2003.

 

Work has already commenced on some of her recommendations and we are looking forward to continuing this process.

 

Balance of Payments

 

The estimates for the Balance of Payments have been completed and the publication is available on the government’s website at the Statistics Department’s link. These estimates were compiled through a collaborative effort of staff from the Anguilla Statistics Department and the staff of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB).

 

 

TOURISM STATISICS

 

Progress continues to be slow with the automation of the arrivals data. However there are move afoot to get the system in place sometime before 2005.

 

Visitor surveys were completed for 5 month of the year with the department currently conducting the last for this year.

 

Occupancy rates and average daily rate are being produced with some measure of consistency on a monthly basis.

 

Social Statistics

 

In the area of social statistics, the department has started to regularise the statistics we produce and have seen it fit to include the producers of the data, by presenting project document to them, where we endeavour to assist them with the collection of raw data, which is then checked and compiled by the statistics department to create table and produce indicators.

 

Some of the areas in which this method has been used this year are with the police and prisons to produce crime statistics.

 

We are currently working along with the civil registry and other stakeholders to improve our vital statistics data with would improve our population projection once the immigration system is brought online.

 

Census

 

To date we have yet to commence the writing of any of the monographs as we await word from the regional census coordinating committee on the was forward as it relates to the remuneration of the writers.

Miscellaneous Surveys

 

During the course of the year the department has endeavoured to provide other government departments and private sector businesses with survey services.

 

This mechanism provides the department with additional funding to supplement our approved governmental budget. This allows us to access additional funding to conduct our core duties with a little flexibility.

 

In some cases is also allow for the creation of new dataset on area never explored.

 

This year we conducted three (3) of these type surveys:

 

1. Customer Satisfaction Survey for the Anguilla Electricity Company (ANGLEC). The purpose of this survey was to assist the staff and management of the company in improving and providing better service to their customers in various areas of their service.

 

2. Client Satisfaction Survey for the Public Health Services. The purpose of the survey was to assist the Ministry of Social Development, under which Health falls, to collect data on the levels of clients’ satisfaction with the health services1 for the purpose of upgrading the areas highlighted, as in need of improvements.

 

3. Survey of High School Students and Recent High School leavers. This was actually two survey conducted simultaneously on two different sample population for the Education Planner in the Ministry of Social Development. The purpose of the survey was to assist in providing some solid data to be used in the establishment of a tertiary institution on the island.

 

The survey of Recent High School leavers was the most challenging one as the students were quite difficult to trace as some were studying or living abroad and had to be contact via unconventional means.

 

The surveys proved to be successful given their initial purpose and also exposed all members of staff to survey design and methodology in house.

 

 

 

1 ________________________________________________________________

These included the Health Clinics, Dental Clinics and the Hospital Outpatients and Inpatients.