[Editoria] This Is the Level of National Statistics?

The NSO real wage statistical errors and the Department of Labor subsidiary Employee Safety Center`s (ESC) unemployment statistics mess up shocked the nation. The blame for the fact that our country made the kind of mistakes that an underdeveloped country might make due to the lack of means for composing statistics, or may occur in a socialist country that needs statistical reporting for national regulation, for years goes to the government without question.

The relationship between real wage statistics and consumer price is common sense. Yet, the National Statistical Office (NSO) substituted producer price whose rates are lower than the consumer price, producing statistical values that inflate the wage earners` purchasing power. May be this is why the world seemed a better place after reading the government statistics while the shopping basket actually kept on getting lighter.

The NSO explains that it was not deliberate but happened because the personnel was not properly trained when the person in charge changed. The Department of Labor explains that the error occurred in the process of receiving and working the documents. What in the world, then, is the highest governmental office responsible for national statistics doing to mess up personnel training and producing false statistics? And what is the other department doing to commit such an error in handling the documents?

Things get worse when one looks at how the regional Department of Labor subsidiary ESC mishandled the documents. ESC employees fabricated records to make it appear as if they provided employment to people who actually had jobs in order to receive the extra benefits that follow from positive results. They even surpassed the achievements of NGO employment agencies. One cannot express the depth of disappointment at the level of government officials` awareness and management skills.

The employment rate rose to 79 percent according to calculations from these records, and one wonders whether the government authorities congratulated themselves for cutting down unemployment after using these numbers. The pitiful state of government statistics created a strange phenomenon where the streets were overflowing with the unemployed while the statistically their numbers were going down. The ESC statistic fabrication falls under criminal activity and the government should strictly penalize it.

Statistics is a fundamental component in creating national policy. A faulty statistics, therefore, leads to inadequate policy and this may very possibly bring about a terrible national loss. It is especially important to understand that at the present time when the economy is unstable, the trustworthiness of statistics and the success or failure of policy is directly connected.

It is only right that the people do not believe the government`s policy because they lose confidence in national statistics. Faulty national statistics may also have a negative impact on foreign relations in the future. This is not an issue that should be handled lightly.