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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