Long-range planning, progress- and cost-reporting in the Central bureau of statistics of Norway

Abstract

As most firms and agencies, a statistical office has an administrative need for measuring and describing its own activities in different ways to predict future needs for resources, allocate resources and control efficiency. Measuring and describing the activities in a statistical office turns out not to be without problems and had not been advanced beyond the financial accounting until recently in most offices. The Ministry of Finance, the Parliament as well as the general public also like to know what they can expect to receive in return for the resources. It is the concern of the Bureau to inform the public about its general plans and later to produce results which satisfy the expectations of its sponsors. In the Norwegian Bureau we therefore felt we had a need for a system. which indicates both the inputs and outputs of our activities in such a manner that it could be used to construct satisfactory plans as well as controlling and comparing the current progress with the stipulated plans in order to take corrective measures as fast as possible.