Key document for publishing census results must be adopted by March 15 or there will be no results!

Based on the recommendations of the International Monitoring Mission (IMO) received by statistical institutions after 22 visits in February and the decision of the Director of the Agency for Statistics of Bosnia and Herzegovina to work intensively on activities related to processing census results, a session of the Census Bureau of the Agency for Statistics of Bosnia and Herzegovina was held on Thursday, March 3, with the aim of determining and organizing further steps in processing census results and complying with the recommendations of the IMO team, reports the Bosnian news agency Patria.

It was concluded that activities on processing census results will continue intensively during the next week. Thus, the staff of statistical institutions working on processing census results will continue working at the Central Processing Site. Consultations with international census experts will be intensified, software for probabilistic and deterministic analysis on the raw database will be prepared and tested, and work will continue on other procedures for deriving population categories.

A detailed revised Plan of Activities for processing census materials was prepared, in accordance with the recommendations of the IMO mission and the legal deadline for publishing census results, which will be submitted to the Central Census Bureau for adoption.

The Census Bureau of the Agency for Statistics of Bosnia and Herzegovina is unanimous in its position that if the key document "Unique Program for Processing Census Materials of the Population, Households, and Dwellings Census in Bosnia and Herzegovina 2013" is not adopted by March 15, 2016, at the latest, statistical institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina will not be able to publish the census results within the legally prescribed deadline for publishing the Census results by July 1, 2016.

The Central Census Bureau should adopt the Work Plan, which must define the start of publishing census results, and the Unique Program for Processing Census Results, which also includes a set of rules for deriving residents. A session of the Central Census Bureau will be held by the end of next week.