Whistleblowing in Belgium presented by Amine Souici, Office of Administrative Ethics and Deontology
Session IV - Use of administrative data for data collection - Statistics Belgium
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Transcript of Session IV - Use of administrative data for data collection - Statistics Belgium
Session IV-
Use of administrative data for data collection
-Statistics Belgium
Geneva, 31 October – 2 November
Agenda
• Administrative simplification techniques
• E-government– XBRL standard– Architecture
• Main results
• Lessons learned
Administrative simplification techniques
• Administrative simplification techniques– Before 2008:
• Gold-plating– Checking to what extent national surveys are in line with
European statistical demands• Questioning fewer enterprises
– Reducing sample size by using estimation procedures (threshold…)
• Changing survey frequency– Reducing frequency
• Avoiding double questioning– Information already known to public administrations is not
asked for twice (administrative sources)» Such information is removed from the questionnaire
– Using authentic sources
Administrative simplification techniques
• Administrative simplification techniques– Before 2008:
• Avoiding double questioning:
• Conclusion– Variables should be deleted only when entire sections of the survey form can be
deleted. – Randomly deleting variables from parts of a questionnaire should be avoided as
much as possible.
Positive Negative
Enterprises
- shorter questionnaire- Reduced administrative burden- more time for core business
- Short-lived satisfaction- Enterprises still have the impression that Statistics Belgium is asking for the same information twice- Filling in a questionnaire is more complex as the logical structure is lost after simplification- More ex-post contacts are needed with enterprises
Statistics Belgium
- Fewer complaints about the burden - Consistency problems between survey data and administrative sources
Administrative simplification techniques
• 3 questions needed to be answered:– How can we still delete variables from parts of a
questionnaire when the information is already available in an administrative source?
– How can we further reduce the administrative burden for enterprises?
– How can we ensure greater consistency between data from administrative sources and survey data?
• Solution = E-government– XBRL standard
– Uploading information directly from the enterprise software
– Pre-filled questionnaires
E-government
• XBRL standard– Electronic reporting language based on XML
(open standard) for the exchange of business data through the internet, limiting operations as much as possible
E-government
• XBRL standard– Taxonomy
• Xsd schema + 3 xml files (linkbases)– Xsd schema = type of dictionary in which elements are
defined once • Linkbase:
– Label linkbase: 4 languages– Reference linkbase: references– Presentation linkbase: tree structure of documents– Calculation linkbase (formula linkbase): order of operations
– An Instance• Form with values
E-government
• “Form-based” approach– Starting point: defining the content of the
questionnaire, related definitions and explanations
• Mapping needs to already existing taxonomies – External (national) consistency (NBB, Ministry
of Finance)– Internal consistency
E-government
E-government
E-government
• Mapping needs to administrative or statistical sources– Consistency between data from different public
administrations or from different statistics
• Investigating whether the information is directly available within the enterprise without requiring any transformation– Uploading information from the software– Taking into account data types
E-government
• Investigating whether the information is directly available within the enterprise without requiring any transformation– Close cooperation with federations and
software vendors• Federations:
– what are the most common software tools?– Promoting XBRL upload
• Software vendors– Information on software products (content)– How are data ‘presented’ in the software?
E-government
• On the basis of mapping information, information from Federations and software vendors, we create the needed DTS– through a taxonomy editor or through SAS
procedures
• If it is possible to upload from software systems, the taxonomy is published on our website + the technical protocol and versioning– http://statbel.fgov.be/xbrl/
• Testing phase (about 3 months) for software vendors before the launch of the survey.
Architecture
• Main functionalities – Based on the XBRL standard– Generic (all (non-) dimensional taxonomies)– Uploading instances directly from software systems– Manual encoding in automatically generated web
pages– Instant validation
• Business rules through XPath (no use of Formula Linkbase)• The SAS-procedure generates a txt-file with validation rules
– PDF report– Standard ETL to export data into DWH– Benchmark reports
Architecture
• Main functionalities – Pre-filling all data known (mapping)
• Based on the mapping results, items to be pre-filled are identified
• Pre-filled data are often:– Annual accounts (e.g. SBS)– Social Security (e.g. SES, Job vacancy…)– Data from other questionnaires (e.g. Producer Price Index)– Business register (all surveys)
• Pre-filling possible through the creation of a plain file with data to be pre-filled
– Independent of data source– Converting into a txt-file through the SAS-procedure – Architecture does not need to be modified if a new data source
is available– Not only data from administrative sources are pre-filled, but
also data from other surveys
Architecture
FOD Economie
DB systemsFOD Economie
Taxonomy Management
FOD Economie Business rules, enterprise data,
translation management
FormsXBRL
Taxonomies
XBRL Instances (complete)
XBRL Instances
(incomplete)
DB2-PureXML
WebSurvey XBRL System FOD Economie Survey Mailing/Post System
External GUI- Authorisation- Manual keying of XBRL Data - Uploading XBRL intances- Saving XBRL instances- Printing XBRL instances
XBRL Instances ValidatIon and
Business Rules Validation
TransformationBatch process
NBB
FOD EconomieUser 2
FOD Economie
DB with NBB data
DatEnq (internal users) &
eDatEnq (external users)
System
Follow upInterface
User Management
Interface
FOD EconomieUser 1
Internal GUI- Authorisation- Manual keying XBRL Data- Saving XBRL instances- Printing XBRL instances
Belgian Companies
Off-Line Forms Generator
Off-Line XBRL Instance Generator
Taxonomy & Enterprise list loading
Business rules loading
Main resultsChanges
Before 2008 After 2008
For Statistics Belgium
Application tailored to one survey Generic tool for different surveys
Labour-intensive manual task Flexible process
Avoiding double questioning by deleting itemsAvoiding double questioning by pre-filling
questionnaires
Strong reliance on IT Greater autonomy
Almost no answers through a web formAbout 96% of answers through a web form or
upload
Costly process Cost-effective process
Major inconsistency between survey data and administrative sources
Consistency between survey data and administrative sources
For enterprises
Unclear link with administrative sourcesExplicit link between the questionnaire and
administrative sources
No upload possible Uploads possible from the software
Manual process Pre-filled web form
Ex-post corrections Online corrections
Lessons learned
• Lessons learned– Absolutely necessary to share a unique identification
number for enterprises– Upload: need to block pre-filled data– Push-on-the-button solution
• Price of the solution• Stability of the questionnaire• Real simplification
– Sharing a standard among different administrations– Consistency checks for pre-filled information– Promoting the use of a web survey or upload by sector
federations