The Statistics Centre Abu Dhabi, or SCAD, may take action against private firms, which will not provide required information to its statistics gathering field surveyors.

This was recommended by the board of directors of the statistics gathering organisation, which met here on Monday.

The board discussed the progress of Annual Economic Surveys, addressing the challenges and obstacles confronted by the centre because of the poor response of private companies in providing the data required by SCAD.

The board recommended “putting into effect the Centre’s law enforcement capacity, pursuant to Law No. 7 of 2008 on the establishment of Statistics Centre-Abu Dhabi, of which Article 29 imposes penalties on non-cooperating establishments.”

During the meeting, the board members reviewed the performance report for last May to learn precisely on the initiatives and projects accomplished as part of the Centre’s operational plan.

The members were briefed on the progress made in the realisation of SCAD’s objectives as set out in its strategic plan and Centre’s preparedness and measures for future challenges.

The board also reviewed the results of the recent customer satisfaction questionnaire, and listened to a brief explanation of the method used in conducting the questionnaire, which touched on several aspects such as: sources of knowledge from the Centre, overall satisfaction SCAD’s services. It also measured statistical awareness and evaluation of Centre’s services by users.

The results of the questionnaire were analysed using a strategic categorisation into four groups based on level of satisfaction, the importance of standards to customers and improvement opportunities.

In addition, the meeting discussed several topics and projects that SCAD intends to implement in the upcoming period, as part of its operational plan.

It also discussed a proposal to creating an international advisory committee to benefit from international practice in area of interest, with a view to ensuring continued development of statistical work in Abu Dhabi.

A presentation on benchmarking with Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries was given during the meeting. It compared the statistical indicators adopted by these countries with those compiled by centre, exploring ways to add missing indicators in the future plans of SCAD.

The board approved the Statistical Excellence Award proposal for the Abu Dhabi, one of the ambitious initiatives to the upgrading of statistics and statistical awareness besides improving government performance in the field of statistics.

Butti Al Qubaisi, director-general praised the outcomes of the meeting, which also discussed the budget proposals stressing the desire of the board of directors to achieve the vision and mission of the Centre, under the guidance of the Emirate’s wise leadership.