Transcript Use of KNI`s for measuring sustainability and for audit

Analysis of opportunities on the use
of KNI for international comparisons
in the context of sustainable
development
Presentation of Gyula Pulay, strategic director of
the State Audit Office of Hungary
5th Meeting of the INTOSAI Working Group
on Key National Indicators
Riga, April 3 – 4, 2012
Possible SAI functions in
relation to the KNIs
• Expansion of audits on socio-economic
sustainability
• Better substantiation of (performance)
audits with KNIs
• Assistance with the development of KNIs
Sustainability indicators
of the Eurostat
• They serve an EU-wide strategy aimed at the
quality of life and the sustainability
• Eurostat has reported of the sustainability
indicators (SIs) every second year since 2005
• 11 headline indicators grouped under 10
themes in 2011
• 100+ further indicators specifying the headline
indicators
Hungarian
sustainability indicators
• Published by the Hungarian Central
Statistical Office (HCSO) basically
according to the Eurostat pattern
• Latest version was issued in April 2011
• Three-level structure with 9 headline
indicators and altogether 149 indicators
• Time series for 1995-2009 with occasional
reference to EU data
Comparison of the HCSO and the
Eurostat headline indicators 1.
Themes
1.
2.
Headline indicator(s)
Socio-economic
GDP per capita
development
Sustainable consumption Resource productivity
and production
3.
Social inclusion
At-risk-of-poverty ratio
4.
Demographic changes
5.
Public health
Employment rate of older
workers (Eurostat)
Dependency ratio (HCSO)
Life expectancy at birth
and healthy life expectancy
Comparison of the HCSO and the
Eurostat indicators 2.
Themes
6.
Climate change and
energy
7.
Sustainable transport
8.
Natural resources
9.
Global partnership
10. Governance and
public life
Headline indicator(s)
Greenhouse gas emissions
Share of renewable energy
Energy consumption of
transport (relative to GDP)
Bird index
Conservation of fish stocks
(Eurostat only)
Official development
assistance (Eurostat only)
(No headline indicator)
SAI’s relation to
sustainability
Two points of interest:
• National-level audit of sustainable development
• Better substantiation of the usual performance audits
by means of SIs
More and more SAIs’ mandate covers one or both of the
above functions
The suitability (measurability, analytical soundness,
relevance) of the indicators should also be audited
The program-level auditing may be an alternative to the
national level auditing of sustainable development
Sustainability
convergence analysis
National progress and the international (EU)
comparison of indicators are equally important
Examples of lags where convergence is needed
to speed up in case of Hungary:
• employment rate
• R+D expenditures/GDP
• participation in life-long learning
• life expectancy at birth
• dependence on energy imports and energy
consumption of transport/GDP
Better substantiation of
audits with SIs
The Hungarian SAO has applied/plans to apply
SIs as an experiment in case of three audits:
• the evaluation of subsidies funded from
national and EU sources, facilitating the
creation and preservation of jobs (concluded)
• the audit on the public employment and
training programs (in progress)
• the audit on national parks (planned)
Forms of cooperation
between the auditors and
the SI analyst
• The analyst is involved in the elaboration of
the audit program
• The analyst informs those involved in the audit
about the international and national
experience concerning the topic
• Consultation about the problems, which may
arise in the course of the audit
• The analyst is involved in the evaluation of
results gained due to the application of
sustainability indicators
Experiences and Conclusions
of the concluded experimental
audit
• Applicable HCSO indicators have been in
abundance available (9 in the case)
• The indicators are sufficiently detailed in order
to bridge the macro-level indicator – programlevel audit problem
• Another methodological problem is that
several factors are reflected within one
indicator
• General expectation from such an audit is to
evaluate the subjective and objective failurefactors of a program
International Outlook 1.
Two questions and seven countryresponses
1. Does your SAI participate in the elaboration or
development of the national indicator system
of sustainable development (and if it does,
please indicate, how) ?
1. Has your SAI already tried to utilize these
indicators during SAI audits, especially
performance audits (if yes, please indicate how
and in which topics) ?
International Outlook 2.
Russia
1. Yes. Representatives of SAI are members of such
working groups and SAI reports on realization of KNIs
2. Yes. Utilization partly in regional development audits,
partly in large sector audits (such as oil-production)
Latvia
1. SAI doesn’t participate, but has made proposals for
making a link between the state policy and the
budgetary policy
2. Does not possess yet a uniform KNI system; instead
policy- or institution-specific outcome and output
indicators have been developed
Denmark
1. No; it is not in the SAI’s mandate
2. No utilization in the reports, rather in the pre-studies
for performance audits
International Outlook 3.
USA
1. SAI has advocated for a national level KNI system
(which exists only at sub-national level at
present)
2. No, but there are alternative approaches such as
portfolio oversight (over program-governance),
logic models (input→outcome, instead of
starting from the outcome)
China
1. SAI is not directly involved (consulted only)
2. Yes, especially from the environmental
perspective (compliance with sustainability
strategy and regulations); moreover, SAI has
developed an indicator system based on the
KNIs for audit of the use of foreign loans by
government
International Outlook 4.
Lithuania
1. SAI is not involved; only as observer in some cases
2. Yes, it is a base for evaluation mostly in audits of
environment, health care and social security
Austria
1. SAI offers the presentation of a report on indicators
to measure sustainability
2. It is about a performance audit on the process of
using indicators as well as on the interplay between
national and European fiscal sustainability
Thank you for your
attention