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Annual Report of the Ombudsman 1996

Chapter One

Introduction

This Annual Report covers the second full year of my tenure as Ombudsman. Last year's report differed from previous reports in its format, style and general theme. It was also bilingual and was made available on the Internet and on diskette. In it, I tried to inform the public, the media and, of course, the Oireachtas of the work done by my Office on individual complaints. I also set out to acquaint the public bodies within my remit with the Principles of Good Administration and their relevance to the work of the public service. I suggested that the quality of public administration would be greatly improved if public bodies were mindful of these principles in exercising their powers.

The 1995 report was very well received and I am encouraged to try to build on its success. The general theme of that report was that citizens are entitled to be dealt with properly, fairly and impartially by public bodies. I gave examples of complaints involving maladministration where public bodies had failed to observe the Principles of Good Administration. This year I want to be more positive. I have developed a checklist which highlights the standards of best practice which, I suggest, public bodies should adopt so as to ensure high quality public administration.

Public Bodies and the Citizen - The Ombudsman's Guide to Standards of Best Practice

Public bodies should strive for the highest standards of administration in their dealings with the citizen. With a view to achieving this aim, they should ensure that citizens are dealt with properly, fairly and impartially. The following checklist, although not exhaustive, is the Ombudsman's guide to standards of best practice by public officials.

Dealing "properly" with people means dealing with them -

• promptly, and without undue delay;
  
• correctly, in accordance with the law or other rules governing their entitlements;
  
• sensitively, by having regard to their age, to their capacity to understand often complex rules, to any disability they may have and to their feelings, privacy and convenience;
  
• helpfully, by simplifying procedures, forms and information on entitlements and services, maintaining proper records, and providing clear and precise details on time limits or conditions which might result in disqualification;
  
• responsibly, by not adopting an adversarial approach as a matter of course where there may be a fear of litigation.
  

Dealing "fairly" with people means -

• treating people in similar circumstances in like manner;
  
• accepting that rules and regulations, while important in ensuring fairness, should not be applied so rigidly or inflexibly as to create inequity;
  
• avoiding penalties which are out of proportion to what is necessary to ensure compliance with the rules;
  
• being prepared to review rules and procedures and change them if necessary;
  
• giving adequate notice before changing rules in a way which adversely affects a person's entitlements;
  
• having an internal review system so that adverse decisions can be looked at again and reviewed by someone not involved in the first decision;
  
• informing people how they can appeal, co-operating fully in any such appeal and being open to proposals for redress.
  

Finally, dealing "impartially" with people means -

• making decisions based on what is relevant in the rules and law and ignoring what is irrelevant;
  
• avoiding bias because of a person's colour, sex, marital status, ethnic origin, culture, language, religion, sexual orientation, attitude, reputation or because of who they are or who they know;
  
• ensuring, where a service is based on a scheme of priorities, that the scheme is open and transparent .
  
• being careful that one's prejudices are not factors in a decision.
  

I hope that public officials will find this a useful checklist in their efforts to provide a better service to their customers. Accordingly, I have arranged for it to be printed as a separate leaflet which is enclosed with each copy of my Annual Report. Additional copies of the leaflet are available from my Office.

In Chapter 3, I return to these standards of best practice and illustrate their relevance to individual complaints examined in the course of the year. I hope, by giving these examples, not only to draw attention to the individual injustices suffered by citizens but to emphasise again that the relationship between public bodies and the citizen is an essential element in the quality of our society and democracy.

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