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Human Resource Management Strategy (2003 - 2005)

Chapter 1 - Ombudsman/Information Commissioner's Introduction

Chapter 1 - Ombudsman/Information Commissioner's Introduction

The positions which I hold as Ombudsman and Information Commissioner are very important within our democratic process. My role, and by extension, the role of our statutory Offices is succinctly described in our mission statement as "helping to create a public service which is open, fair and accountable". An open, fair and accountable administration is at the heart of an effective democracy.

The Organisation's Business Plan 2000-2001 developed a set of values which embraces the statutory functions which I hold. These values are independence, authority, credibility, objectivity, accessibility, flexibility, respect for each other and helpfulness. These values define us as an organisation. They underline the importance of the work that we do and they illustrate how our approach to our work differs from that of Government departments and offices generally. Just as these values were a useful starting point in developing the Business Plan, so too, they have proved to be useful in developing our Human Resource Management (HRM) Strategy. They are described in more detail on pages eight and nine of this document.

The Business Planning process gave detailed expression to the mission statement and organisational values through the development of goals and objectives. These goals and objectives now have even greater relevance to each staff member through the Performance Management Development System (PMDS).

I could not function as Ombudsman and Information Commissioner without the assistance of the team of expert, committed and enthusiastic people who staff the Offices. But equally, Business Planning and PMDS will play an important role in creating coherence between my personal approach to each of my statutory roles and the way in which individual staff members carry out their roles on a day-to-day basis.

This coherence will be further increased by the HRM strategy because it identifies a set of actions which will assist staff to reach their full potential and to meet the many challenges which lie ahead.

The experience of working in this Organisation can be a very rewarding one. There are opportunities to assist members of the public who have been unable to access information or gain appropriate redress from public bodies when things go wrong. There is the opportunity to promote higher standards among those who hold public office. There is also the satisfaction of helping to bring about new procedures in public bodies which result in better standards of public administration. And with increasing public demand for higher quality public services and better ethical standards there is considerable interest among the media and the public in the work that we do.

But there are new challenges. Our work is becoming more complex as the work of Government itself becomes more complex. The public is less tolerant of poor quality public services and more demanding in terms of remedies, redress and access to information. Needless to say the demand for a good quality service by the public makes it incumbent on our Organisation to provide a prompt, effective and professional service to all our clients. This is all the more important in our case as an organisation which critically examines standards of openness, fairness and accountability and seeks improvements where they are seen to fall short. The HRM strategy sets out a programme of action which will help staff to meet these challenges and assist the Organisation to become more effective in the years ahead.

Emily O'Reilly
Ombudsman/Information Commissioner
July 2003

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