Data Needs and Limitations for Public Services Modeling

Abstract

Possibly, local government units that conform to the rules and standards should be awarded a Certificate of Conformance for non-financial data as well as financial data. To initiate the movement for non-financial data in local government, a document needs to be developed that inventories, classifies, and defines/describes the various models that presently exist that use non-financial public sector data. Many local government officials presently believe, and for valid reasons, that much of the non-financial data that they record and report will never be checked, validated or used for any purpose. However, the incidence of useless or misleading public sector model results is not widespread because the development of these models is just beginning, not because the present non-financial data is valid, reliable and in a usable form. Many local government officials do not understand the significance of financial and non-financial data, or what aspects of their government the data is intended to describe or represent.