Improvement Actions Ireland

Recommendation 11

The Department of Finance should consider changing the budgetary arrangements under which European Union grants for statistics development work do not reach the Central Statistics Office. (Improvement-related: ES CoP, Indicator 3.1).

Current situation:

Note: The Department of Finance became The Department of Public Expenditure & Reform.

As a general principle, Government accounting is on a gross basis, i.e., receipts are not netted off against payments. As a rule, all revenues of the State are paid into the Central Fund of the Exchequer. Departmental receipts fall into two categories: they may be appropriated in aid of expenditure borne on a vote or they must be surrendered directly to the Central Fund as Exchequer extra receipts. The approval of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform should always be obtained before determining whether to treat a particular type of receipt as an appropriation-in-aid or an Exchequer extra receipt.

Improvement action 11:

Engagement with Department of Public Expenditure & Reform. Engage with Department of Public Expenditure & Reform to establish how funds from European Statistical System development grants could be credited to the Central Statistics Office budget rather than Appropriations in Aid.

Deadline:

Q4 2024.

Responsible institution for improvement action 11:

Central Statistics Office, Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

Recommendation 12

The Central Statistics Office needs to pursue efforts to create a comprehensive system of cost accounting by outputs to facilitate prioritisation and the full and fair pricing of services rendered. (Improvement-related: ES CoP, Indicators 3.2, 3.4 and 10.1).

Current situation:

The Central Statistics Office vision is to achieve “Independent Insight for All”, an objective underpinned by its Core Value of “serving the public”. As such, the CSO produces its outputs as a public good, varying and extending the range of its activities and products in response to statutory obligations and emerging policy support and insight requirements. The CSO does not charge for its products, which are universally accessible.
Accordingly, the CSO’ primary focus has historically been on input cost accounting, to ensure that it has adequate resourcing in relevant areas of the organisation as a function of emerging general demands. Increasingly, the CSO is being approached directly to support Government Departments and associated bodies (e.g., OECD) with data collection needs in specific public policy areas. When commissioned in this manner, such work is increasingly being conducted on a “pay per output” basis, whereby an existing internal Work Support System (WSS) is used to cost each activity, using apportionment of the “time” cost for personnel and the flow through of other direct costs. This system is proving adequate to satisfy the needs of both the CSO and the requesting Department. The CSO does not have a commercial mandate and is not required to be “self-funding” beyond the exchequer vote. Should this change in the future, there would be a clear incentive to explore cost accounting more fully as an aid to effective output product costing.

Improvement sub-action 12.1:

Annual Expenditure Review meeting. To further develop business insights into cost and product accounting, an annual expenditure review meeting will be held with each Assistant Director General and their Heads of Division. Finance Division will provide overall costs per Head of Division and facilitate the review.

Deadline:

Q2 2023 (annually afterwards).

Responsible institution for improvement sub-action 12.1:

Central Statistics Office.

Improvement sub-action 12.2:

Annual report to Management Board on review and consideration of actions arising. The Assistant Director General for Corporate Affairs will submit a report to the Management Board on the expenditure review.

Deadline:

Q4 2023 (annually afterwards).

Responsible institution for improvement sub-action 12.2:

Central Statistics Office.

Improvement sub-action 12.3:

Reviewing Product Cost-based Accounting. CSO will undertake a consultancy project to review the growing complexity of its work which demands greater financial insight for decision making. This will include consideration of the possible increased use of cost accounting in the CSO with budget estimates, product cost and service delivery as well as implications of same.

Deadline:

Q1 2024.

Responsible institution for improvement sub-action 12.3:

Central Statistics Office.

Improvement sub-action 12.4:

Reviewing report and developing action plan. CSO will review consultancy report and decide on action plan.

Deadline:

Q2 2024.

Responsible institution for improvement sub-action 12.4:

Central Statistics Office.