National Statistical Office

The legal basis of the National Statistics Institute is Law 7/96 of July 5, 1996 establishing the National Statistics System (SEN). This law may be viewed on the INE website (http://www.ine.gov.mz/). The SEN is an organic whole made up of the institutions and entities responsible for official statistical activity in Mozambique. It is responsible for ensuring that resources are used rationally and optimally, and for the technical/methodological harmonization and expansion of the supply of official statistical information, with maximum quality and minimum costs.

Pursuant to Article 5 of Law 7/96 of July 5, 1996, official statistical activity is based on the principles of: (1) statistical authority; (2) statistical secrecy; (3) technical autonomy; (4) impartiality; (5) transparency; (6) reliability; (7) relevance; and (8) statistical coordination.

The INE, created by Presidential Decree 9/96 of August 28, 1996, is defined in Law 7/96 as the central executive organ of the SEN responsible for collecting, compiling, coordinating, and disseminating statistical information for the country. The INE may delegate its activities to other state institutions (delegated agencies). At present, the delegated agencies are the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Agriculture, and the Ministry of Health. The statistics produced by these ministries are also considered official. Under the law on the SEN, the Bank of Mozambique is responsible for Mozambique’s official monetary, financial and balance of payments statistics.

At the regional level, the INE is a member of the Statistics Committee of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). This committee coordinates the training of the technical staff of the member countries’ statistics departments as well as the production of statistics.

With input from the members of the National Statistics System, the INE prepares the SEN Strategic Plan, setting forth the vision, mission, and objectives of the SEN for a period of five years. This document establishes the general framework for statistical activity in Mozambique in coordination with other institutions, in the process of collecting, processing, and disseminating statistical series.

The INE is also responsible for preparing both the five-year and the annual National Statistics Plan (PEN). The PEN is also prepared with the cooperation of the other members of the SEN.

Article 6 of Law 7/96 establishes the principle of statistical authority and confers power on the INE to carry out statistical activities and conduct surveys that must be responded to within fixed time frames.

Articles 7 and 14 relate to the principle of statistical secrecy and confidentiality, respectively. According to Article 7, the principle of statistical secrecy consists of the INE’s obligation to protect individual statistical data concerning individuals or collective entities, collected for the purpose of producing statistics. Article 14 states that all individual statistical information, collected by official statistics-producing agencies within the SEN, are strictly confidential. Access to individual databases is restricted to officials who request information in their official capacities. Protections are in place to prevent unauthorized access to confidential databases.

According to Articles 8 and 9 of Law 7/96 on the SEN, the INE is responsible for collecting, compiling, and disseminating statistical information independently and impartially.

The INE encourages voluntary responses and tries to forge good relations with data providers. The INE uses advertising spots in the mass media to publicize important statistical data collection events. The questionnaires contain a short introduction/summary of the objectives of the survey or census and the INE is always available to provide assistance to respondents on how to complete the questionnaires. To guarantee the trust of survey respondents, the questionnaires include the basic assurances of statistical secrecy and confidentiality.

Improving the quality of statistical information is one of the priorities of the SEN Strategic Plan. In the constant quest for high quality standards, producers of statistics in the SEN, especially the INE, strive to ensure that the statistical information is relevant, reliable, timely, consistent, and accessible.

INE products are clearly identified with its name and logo. The monthly CPI bulletin, the quarterly economic developments bulletin, the national and provincial statistics yearbook, publications containing sectoral statistics (industry, foreign trade, tourism, construction), demographic and social statistics, and publications containing census statistics (censuses and surveys) are clearly identified as INE products.

b. Identification of internal Government Access to Data Before Release
According to Articles 5 and 8 of Law 7/96 on the SEN, the INE is an autonomous and independent institution. By law, the President of the INE is responsible for choosing the projects to be undertaken as well as the methodology to be used. The President defines the time, the method, and the periodicity of publication or dissemination of statistics produced by the institution. However, the INE is not required to submit any publication to government entities for approval prior to release.

c. Identification of Ministerial Commentary on the Occasion of Statistical Releases
The published data are not accompanied by ministerial commentaries.

d. Provision of Information about Revisions and Advance Notice of Major Changes in Methodology
The public is informed of major changes in methodology, data sources, and data collection techniques through press releases, press conferences, user seminars, and in INE publications.