The Bureau of Statistics yesterday announced that its self-imposed deadline for completion of the detailed Census analysis could not be met and it cited staffing issues as one of the challenges.
December, 2015 is now projected as the date for the release of some of the key outstanding data such as the ethnic composition of the population.
The Bureau noted in a release that at the launch of the Preliminary Census Report in June 2014, it had indicated that it would take another year for full completion. However, due to a number of logistical challenges this did not materialise.
The Bureau said its policy intention was to complete the Census Analysis within a period of three years from Census day, September 15th, 2012 thus improving on the five-year time span taken for the results of the 2002 Census to become available.
“We are still within the three (3) year self-imposed time frame since Census day 2012, and are in the process of finalizing our data dissemination plan to respond to the most frequently demanded set of data such as the ethnic composition of the nation, still prevailing most, followed by interest in the age-structure, the quantum and components of the foreign-born population, the gender distribution of the population and the economic activity and Labour Force profile of the population”, the Bureau said.
Chief Statistician, Lennox Benjamin, was quoted in the release as saying that “the Bureau is well aware of the national interest that is engendered in the results of a Population and Housing Census, however, in the face of considerable challenges the Bureau opted for accuracy and credibility over the pressures of time.”
Critics have expressed dismay at the length of time that the Bureau is taking to complete the work.
In a background paper provided yesterday, the Bureau pointed out that when the enumeration phase is completed the intensive work of editing, coding, scanning, verification and cleaning of the data to permit the generation of all detailed tables begins.
It noted that for Guyana, close to one million questionnaires are involved, individual plus household questionnaires from all ten Administrative Regions.
“Such a mammoth volume of work can only be accomplished in the shortest space of time with the employment of significant numbers of temporary staff. However the experience has been this Census that there has been a much higher than anticipated turnover of staff, with attendant poorer than anticipated quality of work, slowing of work output as each period of loss of staff had to be followed by a period of re-recruitment and training of the new cadres, with obvious loss of productivity and further slowing of output. Management concluded that the very nature of employment (temporary) served as a catalyst for all such staff to move on to permanent employment at the first opportunity, with detrimental effect to the completion of work on the data”, the background paper said.
As a consequence of the challenges, rather than publishing the detailed Analysis in one Comprehensive Report as was the case in the immediate past two censuses, the Bureau, according to the background document, now intends to publish two Compendiums, the first encompassing the analyses of the predominant areas of interest now projected for completion by December while work simultaneously continues on other social parameters such as fertility, mortality, quality of life, Immigration etc.
