NSCB Resolution No. 4
Series of 2012

DESIGNATING THE NATIONAL STATISTICS OFFICE
AS THE CENTRAL REPOSITORY
AND THE NATIONAL STATISTICAL COORDINATION BOARD
AND THE STATISTICAL RESEARCH AND TRAINING CENTER
AS THE BACKUP REPOSITORIES OF ARCHIVED DATA
IN THE PHILIPPINE STATISTICAL SYSTEM 

WHEREAS, Republic Act (RA) 9470 or the National Archives of the Philippines Act of 2007 provides that the “State shall give utmost priority for the safeguard, protection and preservation of its public documents and records…as fundamental instruments for efficient and effective governance;”

WHEREAS, Section 2 of RA 9470 further states that “Towards this end, all public records … shall be transferred to a permanent government repository for proper management, control and regulation;”

WHEREAS, the preservation of past statistical data ensures users on the availability of valuable statistical data/information that may be of use in economic and social research work in monitoring  the progress of the country and optimizing return on investments in statistics;

WHEREAS, National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) Resolution No. 10, series of 1997, provided for the adoption and implementation of the Government Statistics Accessibility Program, aimed at improving the accessibility of statistical information and services which include among others, archiving services;

WHEREAS, NSCB Resolution No. 11, series of 1997, which provided for the adoption of data archiving measures by the Philippine Statistical System (PSS), has been identified as a key policy to ensure the preservation, systematic storage and retrieval of statistical data, including records and metadata;

WHEREAS, NSCB Resolution No. 11, series of 2002, defined data archiving policies and guidelines for implementation of the archiving program for PSS-member agencies;

WHEREAS, NSCB Resolution No. 10, series of 2010, enjoined PSS-member agencies to document and archive microdata in accordance with international standards;

WHEREAS, guided by the aforementioned data archiving resolutions, PSS-member agencies have been archiving their data in their central and regional offices;

WHEREAS, there is a need to have a central repository of archived data from all PSS-member agencies to further ensure long term retention and utilization of the data;

WHEREAS, there is also a need for a  backup/offsite repository to preserve the archives in an event of a system crash, major hardware failure or other fortuitous events that may damage or completely destroy the contents of the central repository;

WHEREAS, the National Statistics Office (NSO), as a major statistical agency, has been identified to carry out the task as the central repository of archived data in the PSS based on the following: (1) technical expertise; (2) previous experience; (3) presently storing microdata; (4) capability to extend technical assistance; and (5) willingness to devote time and resources on the archiving of data from various PSS-member agencies; 

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED AS IT IS HEREBY RESOLVED, that the Board designate the NSO as the central repository with the NSCB and the Statistical Research and Training Center (SRTC) as backup repositories of archived data in electronic form for the PSS;

BE IT RESOLVED FURTHER that:

1.  The NSO as central repository shall:

1.1  Design and develop the operational model and infrastructure to support the functions related to the central, offsite, and backup repositories, to be approved by the NSCB Executive Board;

1.2  Establish appropriate offsite repository in at least two selected NSO field offices;

1.3  Incorporate in its budget submissions the necessary funding for the establishment, maintenance and operation of the central and offsite repositories; and

1.4  In collaboration with the SRTC, come up with capacity building program on archiving consistent with repository functions and requirements;

2.  The NSCB and the SRTC as backup repositories shall:

2.1  Maintain backup of archived data found in the central repository;

2.2  Incorporate in its budget submissions the necessary funding for the establishment, maintenance and operation of the backup repository and capacity building programs; and

2.3  Implement necessary security measures to safeguard integrity and quality of archived data;

3.  The PSS-member agencies:

3.1  That have already archived their data shall provide a copy of these data to the NSO as the central repository while those that have not yet archived their data are enjoined to adopt/implement the archiving measures and practices for the PSS per aforementioned NSCB resolutions;

3.2  Shall incorporate in its budget submissions the necessary funding for the establishment, maintenance and operation of the backup repository and capacity building programs;

4.  The Department of Budget and Management shall recognize the budgetary requirements of data archiving and provide financial support to the NSO, NSCB, and SRTC as the central, offsite, and backup repositories of archived data, as well as, the PSS-member agencies in their archiving activities to ensure the efficiency and effectiveness in the preservation of these vital and significant data/records;

5.  The SRTC shall design/develop capacity building programs on archiving;

6.  The NSCB Technical Staff shall monitor implementation of these archiving activities in the PSS including budgetary requirements.

Approved this 1st day of June 2012, in Pasig City.

Attested by:

ROMULO A. VIROLA
Secretary General