Parliament passes National Statistics Bill
Parliament on Thursday last week passed the 2013 National Statistics Bill which replaced the Statistics Act of 1967.
Speaking during the presentation of the Bill to the august House, Minister of Economic Planning and Development Ralph Jooma said it would provide a basis for quality statistics for informed and evidence-based decision-making, policy design and monitoring and evaluation.
“This Act will include emerging issues such as HIV and Aids, environment, gender and ICT which were not there in the old Act,” he said.
Jooma also said there is a code of ethics in the new Act which will regulate the production of statistics and, in the process, increase the level of confidence and trust in the figures.
“It has been 46 years since 1967 and the demands for quality statistics have given rise to the development of statistical frameworks. So, this is a good development for our nation,’’ said UDF spokesperson Clement Chiwaya.
