June 5, 1997 Ulaanbaatar city
LAW ON STATISTICS
CHAPTER ONE
GENERAL PROVISIONS
Article 1. Purpose of the law
The purpose of this law is to establish a unified statistical system of Mongolia and principles of activities, determine the mandatory and full rights of statistical organizations and respondents and regulate the relations that arise between them and whilst provision of statistical information to users.
Article 2. Legislation on statistics
The legislation on statistics shall consist of the Constitution of Mongolia, the present law and other relevant legislative acts that are in conformity with them.
Article 3. Definitions
In this law:
1/ "Statistical information’’ means quantitative data and information relating to the society, economy and environment, which is collected and processed by using standardized programs and methodologies.
2/ "Statistical activities’’ mean the activities as recording, producing, transferring, collecting, compiling, processing and aggregating of statistical data, conducting of censuses and surveys, tabulation and analysis of results, dissemination of the results to users, publication of reports, provision of reliable data and creation of data bases and their storage.
3/ "Statistical respondents’’ mean legal bodies of all kinds of ownership that run activities in the territory of Mongolia and Mongolian legal bodies, Mongolian and foreign citizens and stateless persons operating their activities outside of Mongolia all of whom are covered by statistical surveys and censuses.
4/ "Users of statistical information’’ means legal bodies, Mongolian and foreign citizens and stateless persons who use statistical information for their activities.
5/ "Official statistical information’’ means centralized and decentralized statistical information, results of censuses and surveys that are produced by means of indicators and methodologies adopted and accepted by the National Statistical Office of Mongolia.
6/ "Centralized statistical information" means statistical information and results of censuses and surveys that are collected from individuals and establishment through statistical units at bag/horoo, soum/district, aimag and city, ministries and through other state organizations and that are compiled and processed by organizations which are in charge of statistical activities using the indicators and methodologies approved by the National Statistical Office.
7/ "Decentralized statistical information" means statistical information collected and produced by ministries and other state organizations by means of indicators and methodologies accepted by the National Statistical Office of Mongolia.
8/ "Unofficial statistical information" means statistical information and results of surveys other than those determined in paragraph 5 of this Article.
Article 4. The principles of statistical activities
Statistical activities shall be conducted in accordance to the following principles:
1/ Official statistical activities should be independent;
2/ Scientifically feasible and standardized methodology should be utilized;
3/ Statistical information should be reliable and accurate;
4/ Statistical information should be provided in timely manner;
5/ Statistical information should be widely accessible and transparent to the extent that is determined by the law;
6/ statistical indicators and methodologies shall be compatible with the international statistical standards and methodologies.
CHAPTER TWO
THE SYSTEM OF STATISTICAL INFORMATION
Article 5. Types of statistical information
1. Statistical information shall be comprised of two types: official and unofficial.
2. Official statistical information shall be centralized and decentralized.
3. Official statistical information shall be produced by the National Statistical Office, ministries and other state organizations and governors of all levels.
4. Decentralized statistical information shall include information that is collected by ministries, other state organizations and governors of aimags, the capital city, soums and districts for their own activities.
Article 6. Official statistical indicators and the basis for their production
1. Official statistical information includes the following indicators:
1) macro-economics statistical indicators;
a) gross domestic product;
b) inflation rates and consumer prices;
c) investment;
d) savings;
e) balance of payment;
f) number of unemployed;
g) monetary, bank loans and stock exchange;
h) state and local budget revenue and expenditure
2) population and social statistics;
a) total population, its age and sex structure;
b) fertility, mortality, natural increase, marriage and divorces;
c) economically active population and number of employed;
d) household and population income, expenditure and consumption;
e) population nutrition and calorie;
f) living standards and poverty;
g) average wages and income;
h) educational level of population, number of schools, teachers,
pupils and students;
i) health of population, number of hospitals and clinics, physicians and patients;
j) housing fund and number of houses newly put into operation;
k) number of receivers of pensions and allowances, amount of pensions and
allowances;
l) number of museums, libraries and their stock;
m) number of newspapers, magazines and films;
3) industry, science and technology statistics;
a) number of livestock and other domestic animals;
b) number of livestock fences, wells and water points;
c) output of main agricultural products;
d) sown areas, crops, harvest, hay, fodder;
e) industrial production and sales;
f) output of main industrial commodities;
g) construction, installation and capital repair work;
h) main transport indicators - carried freight, number of
passengers, freight turnover, passenger turnover;
i) communication services revenue, number of telephones and radios;
j) main export and import commodities and their quantities;
k) revenue from tourism and number of tourists;
l) number of patents and new products;
m) expenditure of scientific research, testing and inventions;
4) legal statistics;
a) number of crimes, by type;
b) number of criminal offenders, by age and sex;
c) damage resulting from crimes;
d) number of bankrupt business entities;
e) indicators of administrative and civil criminals;
5) environmental statistics;
a) land protection and damage;
b) resource of safe water, use of water, water pollution, water cleaning
and water wastage;
c) air pollution;
d) forest protection and reforestation;
e) number of protected wild animals and hunting.
2. The relevant ministries and other state organizations shall respectively produce their own statistics on money, loan, finance, customs, tax, environment, art, culture, education, science and technology, health, social welfare and legal statistics and provide them to the National Statistical Office.
Article 7. Conducting censuses and surveys
1. The National Statistical Office shall conduct national population and housing census every ten years and develop input-output table every 5 years. In addition the National Statistical Office shall be responsible for conducting livestock census, including censuses of domestic animals, livestock fences and wells, fodder, and census of establishments as well as other special sample surveys and comprehensive studies as necessary The required funding for censuses and surveys shall be included in the central and local budget for a given year.
2. The schedule of censuses and surveys that are stated in paragraph 1 of this Article shall be determined by the Government and the schedule of sample surveys or comprehensive studies shall be defined by the National Statistical Office.
3. Provided there is a requirement for conduct of censuses in the period other than stated in paragraph 1 of this Article, the Government and the State Great Hural shall agree on and fix the schedule and timing.
Article 8. Unofficial statistical activities
1. Legal bodies and citizens may be engaged in unofficial statistical activities on the basis of an agreement which is established with a respondent.
2. Legal bodies and citizens stated in paragraph 1 of this Article shall be obliged with presenting on the methodology when they disseminate the results to the public unless the law stipulates the otherwise.
3. Legal bodies and citizens who have collected unofficial statistical information shall be liable to keeping the confidentiality of information provided by respondents.
CHAPTER THREE
THE RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF STATISTICAL RESPONDENTS AND USERS
Article 9. The rights and duties of statistical respondents
Statistical respondents shall exercise the following rights and duties:
1/ to offer a proposal to statistical organizations with regards to improvement of indicators and methodology of statistics and surveys;
2/ to refuse to provide official statistical information or respond to surveys especially if the indicators and methodology were not approved or accepted by the organizations engaged in official statistical activities;
3/ to demand legal bodies and individuals to keep the confidentiality of information provided by them;
4/ to have access to statistics and survey and study results produced by statistical organizations;
5/ to keep the primary recording used for production of statistics and surveys;
6/ to provide accurate statistical data and information in a specified schedule by using approved or accepted indicators and methodologies;
7/ to be covered by national censuses;
8/ establishments shall be registered in accordance with the rules and regulations;
9/ to provide official statistical information, at own cost, to the organizations engaged in official statistical activities.
Article 10. Rights and duties of users of statistical information
Statistical users shall exercise the following rights and duties:
1/ to be provided , in accordance with this law and other relevant legal regulations, with information which is drawn using statistical indicators, which are listed in paragraph 1 of Article 6 of this law and other indicators approved by the organizations engaged in official statistical activities
2/ to provide sources of information when using and publishing official statistical information;
3/ not to demand statistical indicators other than those approved and accepted by official statistical organizations
CHAPTER FOUR
THE STRUCTURE AND MANDATE OF STATISTICAL BODY OF MONGOLIA
Article 11. The structure of statistical body
1.The statistical body of Mongolia shall consist of the National Statistical Office which is independently in-charge of co-ordination of all official statistical activities and functions in Mongolia, statistical divisions at the Governors of the capital city, aimags and statistical units at the Governors of districts. An officer of a governor’s office at soums and governors of bag and horoo are responsible for statistical activities in their respective areas.
2.The National Statistical Office is financed by central government budget while the statistical divisions at the Governors of the capital city and aimags and units at district Governors are financed by the respective local budgets.
3.Ministries and other state organizations are engaged in their relevant statistical activities.
Article 12. The National Statistical Office of Mongolia and its mandate
1.The National Statistical Office shall provide the official statistical activities with centralized and overall management and co-ordination.
2.The National Statistical Office can maintain a unit which is responsible for providing paid information services and printing of the statistical yearbook, bulletin and other documents. The organizational structure and principles of activities of this unit will be endorsed jointly with the central state financial management organization.
3. The National Statistical Office shall have the following mandate:
1. to provide official statistical activities with professional and centralized management and take up measures of improvement;
2. to approve and accept indicators, methodologies and manuals or instructions of various censuses, surveys and official statistics and set up the time of their announcement;
3. to provide guidelines for the organizations which are engaged in official statistical activities and respondents for conducting population, social and economic censuses, one-off register and sample surveys and comprehensive studies on special topics, and to monitor and evaluate their activities;
4. to collect official statistical information from relevant ministries and other state organizations in a specified time;
5. to produce and follow statistical indicators and methodologies in compatibility with the international classifications, methodologies and standards;
6. to reflect the needs and order of government and other government organizations in detailed official statistical indicators and provide them with information in a specified time;
7. to prepare and provide , in timely manner, the government and other government organizations with official statistical information which are required for policy making, formulation, planning, management and monitoring;
8. not to be obliged with collecting and processing the indicators other than those listed in paragraph 1 of Article 6 of this law and indicators approved by organizations which are engaged in official statistical activities;
9. to disseminate results of official statistical information and surveys to users and to ensure transparency of the statistical information;
10. to develop short, medium and long term projections, models and make analysis of socio-economic indicators of the country;
11. to retrain and improve professional skills of the statisticians;
12. to collect official statistical information from respondents in timely manner
13. to provide state and government organizations with statistical information free of charge;
14. to ensure the accuracy of statistical information by checking the statistical information produced by legal bodies and taking an action to eliminate errors;
15. to involve national professionals and officers in the national censuses and surveys that are conducted by the commission and request of Government, State Great Hural and President on the basis of agreement with their respective establishments and organizations;
16. to take an action to annul the decisions made by members of the Government, heads of other state organizations and Governors of aimags and the capital city and management of business entities when these decisions are inconsistent with the statistical law;
17. to provide guidance, monitor and control statistical activities of heads of statistical divisions of aimags and the capital city, units of districts, soum statisticians and governors of bag and horoo;
18. to actively participate in the activities of international statistical organizations and other specialized organizations in statistical area, to co-operate with them in accordance with the legislation of Mongolia and international agreements and to provide them with socio-economic statistics about Mongolia.