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1. PRESS RELEASE - Ombudsman's Annual Report for
2009/10 Breakthroughs Achieved over Long-standing Problems
The Ombudsman's Annual Report for 2009/10 is tabled in the
Legislative Council today (7 July 2010). This 22nd issue is
the first report by Mr Alan N Lai, since he assumed the
office of The Ombudsman in April 2009.
"This report, my first, ushers in the twenty-first
anniversary of ombudsmanship in Hong Kong. Over the decades,
our Office has endeavoured to raise the quality of service
and the standard of administration in the public sector.
Thanks to community support and Government compliance, we
have had quite significant successes," said Mr Lai.
Mr Lai highlights in The Ombudsman's Review several
breakthroughs achieved over some long standing
administrative problems in the public sector. These include:
- Post Office's
agreement to allow citizens to opt not to receive
unaddressed circular mail, which mostly are
commercial advertisements;
- the Government's
mapping out a broad framework for more effective
enforcement of unauthorised building works in New
Territories "small houses";
- the Hong Kong
Examinations and Assessment Authority's decision to
allow candidates to obtain their marked examination
scripts starting from 2009; and
- the Judiciary
Administrator’s reducing the time-span for issuing
an order or award by the Small Claims Tribunal
Registry.
This year, the Office of The Ombudsman received a total of
13,789 enquiries and 4,803 complaints. 126 full
investigations, seven direct investigations and eight "mini"
direct investigations were completed in this reporting year,
resulting in a total of 203 recommendations. So far, 195
(96%) of them have been accepted by the organisations for
implementation and six (3%) are still under consideration.
"We are pleased to see our recommendations achieve our aims.
It gives us greater pleasure still to see organisations
concerned taking action on their own to improve themselves
while our investigations were still ongoing. We take this as
an index of a proactive and positive change of culture
towards positive complaint management. We are gratified that
we have been a catalyst for reform," said Mr Lai.
The Report also points out a number of causes for systemic
problems. Compartmental mentality remains prevalent in some
Government departments. The Ombudsman was of the view that
these departments tended to interpret departmental roles and
responsibilities narrowly and were unable or unwilling to
view matters from a wider perspective. He urged Government
departments to give serious consideration to this issue.
Accountability is another area of concern. The Office
observes that some management tend to attribute fault too
easily to frontline staff while forgetting their supervisory
and monitoring roles. The Ombudsman firmly believes that the
principle of accountability should be upheld.
Other systemic issues mentioned in the Report concern water
seepage and public safety. The Office endeavours to continue
its investigative efforts until regulatory measures are
enhanced.
With effect from 2 July 2010, the powers of The Ombudsman
were expanded to investigate the action of another four
public organisations. They are:
- Auxiliary Medical
Service;
- Civil Aid Service;
- Consumer
Council;and
- Estate Agents
Authority.
The Ombudsman's Annual Report is available at
www.ombudsman.gov.hk.
Members of the public may also get a copy from the Resource
Centre at the Office of The Ombudsman while stock lasts.
Attached:
The Ombudsman's Review and
the Summary of the Annual Report.
For press enquiries, please
contact: Miss Kathleen Chan, Senior Manager (External
Relations) (Tel: 2629 0565)
Office of The Ombudsman
7 July 2010
2. PRESS RELEASE
The Office of The Ombudsman held a press conference at 10:00
a.m. on Thursday, 13 May 2010 to announce the
OmbudsNews Issue No. 1 of the Reporting Year 2010/11,
which includes the result of one anonymised investigation
report and one direct investigation report.
For
details, please visit the “OmbudsNews”
page in this site.
Office of The Ombudsman
13 May 2010
3. PRESS RELEASE - New
Deputy Ombudsman appointed
The Office of The Ombudsman announced today the appointment
of Mr SO Kam Shing as the new Deputy Ombudsman.
The appointment is made by The Ombudsman
under the provisions of The Ombudsman Ordinance (Cap. 397).
An open recruitment exercise was conducted to select the new
Deputy Ombudsman and a Selection Board was appointed to
advise on the recruitment.
Mr So is 45 years old. He joined the
Government as Administrative Officer upon graduation from
the University of Hong Kong in 1987. He had worked in a
variety of key positions in the Government. He has vast
experience in public administration and extensive knowledge
of Government operation.
Mr So will join the Office of The
Ombudsman on 1 April and take up his office as Deputy
Ombudsman on 19 April 2010, when the term of office of the
incumbent, Mrs Helen C P Lai YU, expires.
The Ombudsman expressed his thanks to Mrs
Yu for her significant contribution in handling public
complaints against maladministration and improving the
quality of public administration in the past nine years.
All colleagues in the Office joined The Ombudsman in
wishing her a long and happy retirement.
For press enquiries, please contact:
Ms Kathleen Chan, Senior Manager (External Relations) (Tel:
2629 0565)
Office of The Ombudsman
25 March 2010
4. PRESS RELEASE
The Office of The Ombudsman held a press conference at
10:00 a.m. on Thursday, 28 January 2010 to announce the
OmbudsNews Issue No. 4 of the Reporting Year 2009/10,
which includes the result of two direct investigations.
For details, please visit the "OmbudsNews"
page in this site.
Office of The Ombudsman
28 January 2010
5. PRESS RELEASE - Ombudsman
Probes Transport Department Actions for Safe Operation of
Public Light Buses
The Ombudsman Mr Alan Lai is initiating a direct
investigation into actions of the Transport Department
("TD") to enhance the safety of Public Light Bus ("PLB")
operations. There has been long-standing public concern
over this, particularly in view of serious traffic accidents
involving PLBs.
Over the years, the
incidence of accidents involving PLBs is significantly
higher than that of other classes of motor vehicles. In
2008, 1,080 PLBs were involved in accidents, leading to
1,682 casualties including 15 dead and 203 seriously
injured. These represented about 5% of all traffic
accidents and 9% of the resultant casualties for that year.
In terms of the number of vehicles involved in traffic
accidents per 1,000 vehicles in 2008, the rate was 248.5 for
PLBs, as opposed to 35.2 for all motor vehicles. Community
concern is entirely well founded.
"In 2000,
when PLBs were involved in several fatal accidents, TD
undertook to examine and develop safety enhancement measures
for PLBs. From our recent preliminary inquiries, we have
found progress since to reflect neither due diligence nor
urgency. For instance, installation of speed limiters and
vehicle monitoring systems (commonly known as "blackboxes")
and training of PLB drivers are clear cases in point," Mr
Lai said today (21 January 2010).
"We are aware
that, following two major fatal accidents involving PLBs in
June and July last year, TD promptly decided to require the
installation of speed limiters and blackboxes. This
decision is clearly most welcome and is a step to enhance
road safety. We want to ensure effective monitoring of
these measures and to examine the reasons for this long
delay in reaching this decision in the public interest," Mr
Lai continued.
"Road safety is
paramount. TD must proactively enhance safety of our public
transport. We hope, by our direct investigation, to help
towards this object," Mr Lai concluded.
The direct
investigation will examine:
(a) the factors taken
into account by TD in deciding on what measures to be taken,
how and when to implement them;
(b) the mechanisms for
monitoring the measures to be introduced; and
(c) any areas for
improvement.
The Ombudsman
welcomes public views. Comments should reach the Office of
The Ombudsman by 22 February 2010:
Address
: 30/F, China Merchants Tower, Shun Tak Centre
168-200 Connaught Road
Central, Hong Kong
Fax
: 2882 8149
Email
:
complaints@omb.gov.hk
For press enquiries, please
contact:
Ms Kathleen Chan, Senior
Manager (External Relations) (Tel: 2629 0565)
Office of The Ombudsman
21 January 2010
6. NEWS
The
Ombudsman, Mr Alan Lai, has written a series of articles
introducing his functions and jurisdictions and published on
a free newspaper recently. (Note: these articles are
available in Chinese only.)
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