The National Statistical Institute, abbreviated to INE, is a legal person under public law, with legal personality and technical, administrative and financial autonomy. It was created by Presidential Decree no. 9/96, of 28 August 1996, published in the Bulletin of the Republic, Series I, no. 35, of 28 August 1996 - Supplement. INE is under the tutelage of the Council of Ministers. The Council of Ministers has delegated this tutelage to the Minister of Planning and Finance.

The INE is the central executive body of the National Statistical System, abbreviated as SEN, as defined in Law no. 7/96, of 5 July, which is responsible for the production and dissemination of official statistical information of general interest to the country.

Under the terms of paragraph 2 of Article 3 of Presidential Decree no. 9/96 of 28 August 1996, INE is entrusted with the following tasks

Notation, tabulation, dissemination and coordination of the statistical data entrusted to it by the Government under the terms of its annual activity plan, approved by the relevant Minister, taking into account the general guidelines of national statistical activity and the respective priorities defined by the Statistical Council;

Without prejudice to the pursuit of the tasks referred to in the previous sub-paragraph, to carry out statistical operations to meet, under economically viable conditions, the specific needs of public and private statistical users, the satisfaction of which is specially requested by them and financially covered.

In order to carry out its tasks, the INE is responsible for, inter alia

Carry out surveys, censuses and other statistical operations;

Create, centralise and manage the files deemed necessary, namely those on statistical units;

Access, for statistical purposes only, individualised information on public and private enterprises, cooperatives, credit institutions, traders and other economic agents, including sole proprietorships, collected within the scope of its mission by the central, provincial and local public administration, or by private-law institutions providing public services;

Carry out pure and applied statistical studies, as well as economic and social analyses, on the basis of the statistical data produced within the framework of the NSS.

Promote the training of staff of the national statistical system in conjunction with appropriate educational institutions;

To cooperate with foreign and international organisations.
 

Mission

To meet users' information needs in a timely manner and promote the national statistical culture.

Vision

To be the main statistical reference for national development.

Values

Users, Professionalism and Synergies.

Goals

 

General Strategic Objective 1: 

To meet users' statistical needs on the structure and trend of population, economy, society, governance, gender and environment and to promote the use of official statistical information

General Strategic Objective 2:

To progressively create a statistical production capacity at the district and municipality level that responds to the needs of the local and national governance and development process

General Strategic Objective 3:

Capitalize on the production of statistics using new technologies and methodologies, innovation, inter-institutional coordination, ownership of administrative records and reduction of the response burden of data providers

General Strategic Objective 4:

 Enhance institutional capacity in the face of new challenges imposed by users

Challenges

 

Monitoring of the PARPA and the Government's plans: 

Demands for measuring the evolution of poverty,economy, productivity levels imply extensive use of multidisciplinary statistics, for which SEN should play an active role. The strategic, tactical and operational planning framework of SEN and its alignment with the overall framework of the public planning system should also be improved.
 

Decentralization:

Strengthen statistical production capacity at the provincial and district and municipal levels that respond to needs of the local and national governance and development process.
 

Consolidate the production of priority statistics:

Streamline the functions of statistical producing bodies to meet PARPA II objectives, improve cross-sectoral coordination, and avoid redundancies. Ensure that the reform processes of the civil service institutions at central and local level duly safeguard the statistical function so that they result in particular, administrative records that serve as sources of information for the National Statistical System.
 

Partnerships:

Form partnerships in order to ensure appropriate funding for statistical activities in the face of a possible restrictive State Budget scenario, taking advantage of the opening to additional foreign aid flows, provided that they are aligned with the Government's activities and plans. Integrate in the programs and activity plans the main international commitments for integration in the continental sub-region, and in the international community.
 

Strengthen Human Resources:

Create an attractive framework for the development, management and retention of its cadres namely the critical mass. Design training actions for the central level and local level to ensure the necessary capacities for the implementation of the Strategic Plan.
 

New technologies:

Take advantage of the new developments in information and communication technologies, establishing an appropriate framework in which these boost the production, exchange and dissemination of statistics in an integrated and timely manner at the multi-institutional, national, provincial and district levels. At the national level, the opportunities offered by SISTAFE and GovNet will need to be considered. At the international level, the SDMX initiatives, among others.
 

Revision of the legal framework (law on the National Statistical System):

In the general framework of the country's development the current SEN law proves to be inadequate to meet the challenges that arise in the scope of the need for statistical information. Therefore, there is an urgent need to revise the legal framework which is the law on the National Statistical System
 

The construction of a proper building:

There is an urgent need to construct a building for the operation of the National Statistics Institute, the governing body of the NSS

The improvement of Economic Statistics:

specifically those relating to business data, establishment of a comprehensive and consolidated SEN database, and development of a more effective strategy for communication and dissemination of statistical information

National Statistical System (SEN) Legislation