The Norwegian Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development launched a new database whose purpose is to provide transparent information about the efficiency of the welfare services delivered by each of the country's municipalities.

"The database is a contribution to making information on local councils more accessible to communities and their citizens" said the Minister for Local Government and Regional Development, Magnhild Meltveit Kleppa.

"The municipalities manage high financial amounts on behalf of the community and it is essential that the money is used in the best possible way in order to maintain confidence in the public sector" the Minister added.  

The Norwegian Technical Calculation Committee for Wage Settlements (TBU) presents in its yearly report the so-called "production index". The production index is composed of the indexes of some key municipal services, which are based on relevant indicators for the various sectors.

The index, accessible via the new database, covers most of the local public services: kindergarten, primary school, primary healthcare, health and care services, child protection, social services and cultural services. Taken together, these represent some 75 % of all the services that municipalities provide.

For each of the 347 municipalities included in the database, the public can view the welfare services production index, either service by service or as an average of all such services, in comparison to the average of the other municipalities (marked as 100).

Furthermore, next to the services production index, the database features the adjusted municipal income, so as to express the share of welfare services in the overall income of the community. The database lastly provides the net operating income of each municipality, which is an important measure of the municipality's financial balance.

Minister Kleppa admitted that the system "does not tell the entire truth about the councils, but it provides a basis to ask questions and make analysis of the services."  

 

Further information: 

• Official press release - Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development (in Norwegian)
• Link to the database (in Norwegian)