The Public Risk Database Project (PRDP), a nonprofit organization, has developed a national database facility to collect liability claims and other data from state and local governments. The database facility transforms the data into management information and serves as a tool to help public entities improve the performance of their risk-management programs, make better policy decisions, and control risk-financing costs. The database is used to perform financial and actuarial analyses, assess and compare performance, identify loss-control opportunities and best practices, and study other aspects of risk management.

Data is sent to the PRDP database from many different sources, including cities, counties, special districts, states and insurers and other private organizations. To be useful, data must be collected, coded and stored in a common or "standardized" way that is generally accepted by governments and their data management service providers. Working with public risk managers, PRDP has developed a Liability Claims Data Standard that identifies the core data elements that are needed to manage a risk program. It provides a standardized cause of loss coding system that identifies the conduct and conditions that lead to claims. The Standard serves as a model for structuring risk management information systems and facilitates the transfer of data to the PRDP database.

GFOA Position

The Government Finance Officers Association endorses the Public Risk Database Project's Liability Claims Data Standard and urges state and local governments to incorporate the Standard into their risk management information systems and support the development of the PRDP database by sending data in the Standard format to PRDP. Implementation of the Liability Claims Data Standard benefits state and local governments by improving the quantity and quality of information that is necessary to make decisions about risk-financing options, allocate resources to control risk, and assess risk program performance.

• Publication date: June 2000