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FYI

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Jim Cassell                                        jwcassell@UNC.EDU
Institute for Research in Social Science           Phone:  919-962-0782
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill           Fax:    919-962-4777
Chapel Hill, NC  27599-3355   USA

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 1995 15:38:36 EST
From: Keith Bonney <documents@GAO.GOV>
To: Multiple recipients of list SOC-ECON <SOC-ECON@UNMVMA.UNM.EDU>
Subject: Statistical Agencies: Adherence to Guidelines and Coord*

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                                GAO Report -

The U.S. General Accounting Office, the Congressional watchdog
agency, has recently released the following report:

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Statistical Agencies: Adherence to Guidelines and Coordination of Budgets
(Chapter Report, 08/09/95, GAO/GGD-95-65).

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO evaluated the performance of the
Bureaus of the Census, Economic Analysis, and Labor Statistics, and the
National Center for Health Statistics based on selected National Academy
of Sciences (NAS) guidelines. GAO also provided information on the Office
of Management and Budget's (OMB) role in coordinating and overseeing the
statistical activities of the 72 agencies that constitute the federal
statistical system.

GAO found that: (1) the four agencies adhered, with only minor
exceptions, to five of the seven selected NAS guidelines; (2) the NAS
guidelines emphasize the importance of a statistical agency maintaining
the credibility of its data and that it be perceived as free from
political interference and policy advocacy; (3) coordination and sharing
between federal, state, and local statistical agencies increased their
effectiveness and efficiency; (4) in general, each agency had a clearly
defined and well-accepted mission statement, cooperated with data users,
treated data providers fairly, openly described to users all aspects of
its data, and widely disseminated its data; (5) the agencies did not
fully adhere to the guideline on protecting their independence from
political influence because they did not always sufficiently communicate
their procedures to data users; (6) the agencies could not fully
coordinate with other statistical agencies because of statute limitations
to protect data providers' confidentiality; (7) OMB oversight and
coordination of agencies' statistical activities is limited by a lack of
staff resources; and (8) OMB is revising its formal process for reviewing
statistical agencies' budgets in order to allocate its resources for
coordination more effectively.
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