Reporting and Compliance is a cornerstone to the role of the Ombudsman. It is procedural that when the Office initiates an investigation on a complaint through its Investigations Unit, natural justice has to be served to those who participate in the investigation, especially those who may be adversely affected by any comments in the Ombudsman’s investigation report.
Recommendations contained in the Ombudsman’s investigation reports and the investigation reports themselves are part of the Ombudsman and his Office’s (OOSI) primary functions of improving practices and procedures of public bodies and the elimination of arbitrary and unfair decisions.
To ensure this, the Ombudsman Office’s (OOSI) investigation reports are sent to the responsible ministries, departments or agencies for implementation based on investigation findings. Although the law does not expressly require agencies to act here, they are obliged to comply by implementing the Ombudsman’s recommendations anyway by virtue of them being public or government agencies.
This helps to ensure that public administrators comply with the legal frameworks governing their administrative functions.
An additional measure to ensure that the recommendations of investigation reports are implemented is provided for by the pdf Ombudsman Act 2017 (1.83 MB) , and which requires that a copy of all final investigation reports be issued to the following prescribed persons and bodies:
- The public body or public officer being investigated;
- The Minister responsible for the public body or public officer;
- The Prime Minister; and
- If an investigation resulted from a complaint, the complainant must receive a copy of the report.
Other Reports to Parliament
The pdf Ombudsman Act 2017 (1.83 MB) also allows the Ombudsman to, at his or her own discretion, request a further report from a public body or officer whose administrative conduct was investigated after a final report of investigation has been completed. This is regarding the action the body or officer has taken or intends to take to implement any recommendations made in the final report of the investigation.
The Ombudsman may also make a further report to the prescribed persons and bodies who are recipients of final investigation reports under the Ombudsman Act.
These further reports from the Ombudsman must be tabled by the Prime Minister in Parliament within 6 sitting days after he or she receives it, provided that the report given to the Prime Minister for tabling does not include any information that may identify an individual who made a complaint.