GREAT BAY--The General Audit Chamber has published its report, Audit into the Reliability of Statistics, concluding that the Department of Statistics (STAT) is operating in an environment that does not adequately support the consistent production of reliable national statistics. The audit did not test STAT’s published figures themselves, but instead examined whether the department has the human, financial, legal, and operational conditions needed to do its work effectively.
The report makes clear that reliable statistics are not a minor administrative matter. The Audit Chamber notes that accurate, timely, and accessible national data is essential to sound policymaking, public accountability, and informed public debate. It also points out that the government’s 2024-2025 Governing Program specifically recognizes STAT’s role in reporting on economic, social, and demographic indicators, including unemployment, GDP, and poverty.
Among the central concerns identified is chronic understaffing. According to the report, STAT’s updated Function Book outlines 14 full-time positions, while a 2022 peer review by Statistics Netherlands concluded that even 10 staff members would be only “just sufficient” to carry out the department’s work program. In practice, staffing has remained far below that level. STAT had seven staff up to September 2024, six up to December 2024, five up to May 2025, and then effectively four staff members from May 2025, with one on long-term medical leave and another resigning during the audit period. The Audit Chamber states that more than 70 percent of positions were unfilled.
The report says this staffing shortage has consequences across nearly every part of the department’s operations. It limits STAT’s ability to carry out its annual work plan, update methodologies, maintain public access to technical notes and publications, conduct proper quality control, and build stable relationships with data providers and users. The Audit Chamber further found that the department struggles to attract and retain staff with the technical expertise needed in areas such as statistics, econometrics, applied mathematics, geo-information, data science, economics, demography, and quantitative social sciences. There is also no structured training program in place to build those skills internally.
The audit also highlights weaknesses in the broader legal and governance framework surrounding official statistics. While the Statistics National Ordinance gives STAT the authority to request the information it needs and obliges persons and organizations to provide that data fully and truthfully, the Audit Chamber found that STAT has limited practical ability to enforce that obligation when households, businesses, or government departments do not comply. The report also notes that the National Decree governing STAT contains structural inconsistencies, including a reference to five sections within the department even though only three are listed and, in practice, only the Section of Statistics is currently active.
In addition, the Audit Chamber points to weaknesses in the regulatory structure governing social and economic statistics. It says the current framework leaves too many substantive decisions at the ministerial level and does not provide sufficiently clear, binding rules on methodologies, survey parameters, publication requirements, or completeness criteria. According to the report, this creates structural legal and governance vulnerabilities that increase the risk of diminishing the reliability of statistics produced.
On the issue of funding, the report finds that the problem is not simply a lack of money, but rather the way resources are planned and used. From 2022 to 2024, the total amount budgeted for STAT declined, with the 2025 allocation set at XCG 1.3 million. On average, the department spent 75 percent of its planned budget. The Audit Chamber says this suggests financial resources do exist, but that budget execution and planning are uneven. It found under- and overspending across key budget lines including general research, specific research, and external hires, and concluded that these posts do not reflect a cohesive financial approach or efficient budget planning.
The report also raises concern about management and departmental independence. At the time of the audit, there was no permanent Department Head in place. The Acting Department Head was responsible for hiring new staff, but did not have authority over personnel budgeting. The Audit Chamber describes this as a disconnect between staffing responsibilities, budget control, and departmental needs, especially in an environment where operational budgets have been cut while personnel costs have increased.
A major finding in the report concerns data access and completeness. The Audit Chamber says STAT faces obstacles in obtaining complete data from households, businesses, and government departments. It notes that survey fatigue, respondent frustration, and perceived unfairness all contribute to weak response rates, while the department lacks the manpower and technical capacity to develop and implement the resource-intensive strategies needed to address those issues. The report warns that incomplete data can lead to skewed results and incorrect conclusions.
The audit also notes that the 2024-2028 Governing Program stated that a project manager would be appointed to help address the challenges identified in the 2022 peer review by Statistics Netherlands, particularly around delays and cooperation. According to the report, that project manager had not been appointed at the time of the audit.
On methodology and transparency, the Audit Chamber found that although STAT has written handbooks for major projects such as GDP, National Accounts, the Tourism Exit Survey, the Labor Force Survey, the Household Budget Survey, and the Economic Census Survey, the department lacks a formal daily operations manual. The report says the existing written methodologies are not detailed enough to allow future staff to replicate those methods step by step. This, combined with high staff turnover, poses a direct risk to continuity, consistency, and comparability of outputs over time.
The report is similarly critical of the state of public dissemination. It notes that updating STAT’s website had been temporarily paused and depended on the start of an external researcher. Many variables on the site had not been updated since 2024, the most recent Factors Statistical Magazine available was from 2014, and the latest Statistical Yearbook was from 2017. The Audit Chamber says delays in public access weaken the relevance of statistics and that the current reliance on labor-intensive press releases creates additional obstacles to effective information sharing.
In terms of quality assurance, the Audit Chamber found that STAT has limited capacity to perform quality checks, internal audits, or verification of data collected by others. Beyond written procedures for a few specific projects, there are no documented processes for data verification or broader quality assurance. The report states that some methodologies acknowledge problems such as survey non-response, but do not explain how those problems are addressed. It also notes that data collected by third parties is not verified for accuracy and that core statistics such as the Consumer Price Index are largely calculated and processed by Statistics Netherlands, limiting STAT’s ability to oversee methods, verify accuracy, or explain how results were produced.
Despite the concerns raised, the report also identifies opportunities. The Audit Chamber notes that STAT does have a legal basis to collect data, maintains an annual personnel budget above XCG 1 million, and has shown willingness to strengthen cooperation with partners such as Princess Juliana International Airport, the Immigration Department, the Central Bank, and CARTAC. The report says these relationships, together with possible hybrid staffing models, shared regional specialists, and stronger technical partnerships, could help improve the department’s stability and output if properly developed.
To address the issues identified, the Audit Chamber makes five main recommendations: document written operating procedures for all core tasks and projects; establish formal agreements with main data suppliers such as government departments, CBCS, PJIA, the Harbor, and SHTA; revise the Function Book and strengthen staff skills; create a new and realistic staffing approach; and improve cooperation across government through formal instructions, designated ministry contact persons, and regular cross-agency meetings.
In its epilogue, the report states that the Minister acknowledged the importance of the audit and accepted the recommendations during a meeting with the General Audit Chamber on February 27. The Chamber also indicated that it will return through its Progress Meter process to assess the level of implementation of those recommendations.
The full report, Audit into the Reliability of Statistics, is available on the website of the General Audit Chamber.
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