During the reporting year, this Office received 11,821 enquiries and 3,709 complaints, which represented increases of 26.79% and 19.61% respectively over the previous reporting year.

A total of 3,476 complaints, including those carried forward from the previous year, were concluded. Of the complaints concluded, 77% were concluded in less than three months while 20.5% were concluded between three and six months.

To regularise the operations and facilitate better performance of the Office, we proposed a number of amendments to The Ombudsman Ordinance, which mainly aimed at putting beyond doubt the power of The Ombudsman to appoint advisors to assist her in carrying the functions of the Office and enabling her and her staff to conduct preliminary inquiries on complaints received as well as to resolve complaints by mediation. Opportunity was also taken to extend the jurisdiction of The Ombudsman to cover the Equal Opportunities Commission and Office of the Privacy Commissioner in legislative amendment exercise.

On the administrative side, amendments to formalise the delinking arrangements were proposed. These included establishing The Ombudsman as a corporation sole capable of taking or defending civil actions; empowering The Ombudsman to acquire, hold or dispose of property and to enter into contracts; imposing upon The Ombudsman the responsibility to prepare proper accounts and produce these accounts for examination by the Director of Audit and also subjecting The Ombudsman and her staff to the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance in the same way as that Ordinance was applicable to other major statutory bodies.

A total of 161 complaints were investigated in the year. Of these, 69 (42.9%) were found to be substantiated or partially substantiated.

This Office continued to attach great importance to taking a proactive role in resolving systemic issues and eliminating major administrative problems of public concern. Five direct investigations (DIs) were completed in the year, bringing the total number of DIs since 1994 (that is, the year The Ombudsman was empowered to initiate DIs) to 31.

We have also conducted 13 DI assessments and prepared 13 DI assessments reports in consultation with heads of organisations. DI and DI assessments reports are available at the Office’s Resource Centre for public perusal.

The Office continued to operate a roster of Duty Officers and Assistant Duty Officers comprising investigation officers and administrative staff of various ranks to handle more complex enquiries and assist complainants approaching the Office in person to lodge their complaints. In the year, a total of 493 interviews with complainants were conducted.

We began accepting complaints lodged by e-mail in early 2000 following commencement of the Electronic Transactions Ordinance in January 2000. To further extend our service, we started accepting telephone complaints in March 2001 following a 3-month trial scheme between April 2000 and June 2000. A total of 326 telephone complaints were received up to end of the reporting year, of which 218 complaint records were confirmed and returned by complainants for processing.

With the principle of “putting the complainant in the position that he or she would have been in had the maladministration not occurred” remaining uppermost in our mind, we are always prepared to seek redress for complainants who have suffered injustice as a result of maladministration by way of recommendations. Our recommendations broadly fall into two categories, namely, redress of grievances and administrative improvements. In the year, the Office made a total of 190 recommendations, including 59 made in connection with DIs. Of these recommendations, more than 95% were accepted by the departments and organisations for implementation.

This year, 2000 Ombudsman Awards Scheme were again highly competitive as many organisations fulfilled the criteria for award in terms of their professional approach to handling complaints and their commitments to improving the quality of their services. The three winning organisations for the year were Social Welfare Department, Education Department and the Hong Kong Housing Society.

For the awards to individual public officers who displayed an exemplary degree of fairness, impartiality and efficiency in the performance of their duties, a total of 28 public officers from 11 organisations received the awards. “The Ombudsman Guide To Good Standard Of Customer Service For Public Officers” published in March 1998 was used to assess their eligibility for the award.

We organised a two-day strategic planning conference in March 2001 to map out the future direction of the Office and also to help staff to develop their professionalism in carrying out the functions of the Office. In the conference, we reviewed the history of the organisational re-structuring of the Office and the way for its possible evolution after “delinking”, including the proposed amendments to The Ombudsman Ordinance.

We remained in close liaison with other ombudsman organisations throughout the world. We kept abreast with developments overseas through active participation at international conferences, visits and exchange programmes. In the year, we received 14 groups of visitors from kindred organisations in the Mainland and overseas, which included a delegation from the China Supervision Institute in Beijing in November 2000. We were glad to have the opportunity to exchange views and experiences in monitoring public administration with our mainland counterparts.

Starting from the 2001-02 financial year, a new funding model was introduced whereby the Office was given a lump sum in the form of a subvention for the maintenance of its operation and meeting staff costs. This funding arrangement was based on a “no gain no loss” principle and the level of activities prevailing at the time of delinking. Any future non-recurrent requirement or new activities will continue to be funded in accordance with the Administration’s normal funding process.

Pending the enactment of the legislative amendments to empower The Ombudsman to undertake basic administration functions, we continue to rely on government departments for the necessary administrative support services. We hope the amendments will be enacted in the 2000-01 legislative session.

In formulating our own terms and conditions of service, we adopted the principles that the new remuneration package should be simple to administer, sufficiently competitive to attract potential employees and to retain existing staff and also flexible enough for the Office to respond speedily to fluctuations in workload. The new terms and conditions of the Office’s staff were approved in late May 2001 by the Administration.

To ensure operational efficiency and continuity, all civil servants serving in the Office will be posted out in phases. The recruitment exercise is expected to complete by 2002 when contract staff will replace all serving civil servants.