[wdmmg-discuss] Inferring COFOG codes for the CRA data

[Alistair Turnbull]

You will recall that the "function" and "subfunction" columns of the 
published CRA data contain broken data, and that we have been using a 
mapping designed by William Waites to fix them. Dave Boyce has also 
produced such a mapping, and we thought it would be a good idea to 
cross-check them.

It was! I have been able to fix several errors and omissions. However, 
there are still some hard ones that I would like some help with. There is 
some partially helpful advice from HM Treasury here:

 	http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_OFFPUB/KS-RA-07-022/EN/KS-RA-07-022-EN.PDF

Here are the noteworthy ones:

  - Anything with a subfunction of "LA data subfunction" is a problem. I 
don't know what this means. This occurs at least once for every function. 
I have mapped these to relatively coarse COFOG codes: 1, 2, 3, 4.1, 4.2, 
5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10.

  - Function "EU transactions", subfunction "EC receipts" is left 
"unclassified" by HMT. I've mapped this to 1.8 (Transfers of a 
general character between different levels of government).

  - Function "EU transactions", subfunction "GNI-based contribution (net of 
abatement and collection costs)" is also left unmapped. I have mapped it 
to 1.2 (Foreign economic aid).

  - Many of the sub-sub-functions of COFOG function 1 (General public 
services) all say "of which: public and common services". This is 
presumably a cut-and-paste error.

  - Function "3. Public order and safety", subfunction "of which: 
immigration and citizenship" is a tricky one. HMT recommends mapping it to 
3.1.2.

  - Function "of which: agriculture, fisheries and forestry", sub-function 
"of which: other agriculture, food and fisheries policy" maps to two COFOG 
codes: 4.2.1 and 4.2.3. I have mapped it all to 4.2.3, on the feeble 
grounds that nothing else is mapped there.

  - We previous little level-3 data for code 4 (economic affairs) except 
for 4.5 (transport). Even there, nothing maps onto 4.5.2 (water transport) 
or 4.5.4 (air transport).

  - Function "of which: transport", subfunction "of which: local public 
transport" is mapped to 4.5.1 (road transport).

  - Many of the sub-sub-functions of COFOG function 4 (economic affairs) 
all say "of which: enterprise and economic development". This is 
presumably a cut-and-paste error.

  - Function "7. Health" and subfunction "Central and other health 
services" maps to both 7.4 and 7.6. I have mapped it all to 7.4.

  - Function "7. Health", subfunction "Medical services" maps to 7.1, 7.2 
and 7.3. I have mapped it all to 7.1.

  - Code 10 means "Social protection", and inside it are codes 10.7 "Social 
exclusion" and 10.9 "Social protection". Therefore, where the published 
data says function is "Social protection" and subfunction is "blah, blah 
(social exclusion)" I assume I should use 10.7. However, when both 
function and subfunction say "Social protection" is it valid to use 10.9?

Criticism welcome. The target coding system is linked from here:

 	http://ckan.net/package/cofog

Best wishes,

 	Alistair