People urged to cooperate with budget survey
(CNS): The Economics & Statistics Office (ESO) will begin conducting the year-long Household Budget Survey on Sunday and all the households which will be randomly selected are being urged to cooperate with the interviewers. Finance Minister Marco Archer explained the importance of the survey for a number of reasons, as he encourage those selected to answer the survey questions.
“The HBS is one of the most important statistical activities in the Cayman Islands as it seeks to facilitate the accurate measurement of our cost of living,” he said. “The HBS has the potential of impacting every household in Cayman. It will be used in updating the basket of goods and services included in the Consumer Price Index (CPI).” he also noted. The CPI is most commonly used for salary reviews in the public and private sectors; for electricity rate revisions and for adjusting pensions in the public sector.
Trained interviewers will visit the selected households in the three Cayman Islands for the next twelve months in order to gather the necessary data about how people spend their incomes. Given the culture of suspicion over government surveys and the issues of confidentiality, the ESO was keen to reassure the public that the survey is both “safe and confidential”.
ESO Director Maria Zingapan explained that the process is protected by law and those selected are obliged to cooperate with officials, who will be carrying ID cards, and said there was no need to be concerned.
“The interview process is protected by the Statistics Law (2011 Revision), which makes it an offence for interviewers to disclose individual information to any party outside of ESO,” she emphasized.
All interviewers will carry a photo identification, which will be worn at all time for easy visibility. Households may also call the HBS hotline 515-3329 for verification.
For further information, visit the ESO website www.eso.ky
Category: Local News
Done this survey a couple of times, no big deal, no conspiracy, and as far as I can tell no negative consequences.
Paranoid and ignorant I would say
Dear Dr. From your seat of wisdom, please inform the Ignorant of the purpose, cost, and also what huge benefit this exercise will be to those of us who’s hard work and tax pays for these government exercises in futility.
If I were a public servant, I would game the system by over reporting my spending requirements.
That way I would inflate the Consumer Price Index (CPI) so that I would get a bigger raise. Woo Hoo!
Before this or anyone from the previous government “urge me to cooperate, they need to get their house in order by finding the missing billions, stopping cronyism and corruption, dealing with MLA’s who show such contempt for our driftwood friends, stop premiers gambling with government credit cards, enforce the laws that exist, stop NOT renewing expat contracts because you are told home truths, introduce robust performance management that actually exists in name only since locals cannot be fired on poor performance….but enough already!