TO try to resolve the complaints of people aggrieved by officialdom, Ombudsman retired justice Rajmanlal Joseph issued 150 summonses to public officials in 2022.
This was revealed in the 45th Report of the Ombudsman (2022) recently laid in the House of Representatives. The ombudsman provides a free, independent and non-partisan probing of people’s complaints of administrative injustice by public bodies in TT. His/her role is set down in the TT Constitution and the Ombudsman Act.
The ombudsman has the powers of the High Court to summon witnesses to appear before him to give evidence on oath and produce relevant documents, under the Constitution (section 97). The ombudsman website says, “The issuance of summons is one of the tools used by the ombudsman as an effective recourse for resolving matters brought against ministries/government departments and state agencies.” In the ombudsman’s message in the 2022 report, Joseph said, “From the previous years’ experience it became pellucidly clear that the issuance of summons to recalcitrant respondents brought about a noteworthy level of resolution to complaints.”
He said due to this past experience, in 2022 his office issued and heard 150 summonses which led to a 75 per cent rate of resolution of the relevant cases.
“Furthermore, the summons mechanism has now become a valuable instrument in the investigatory toolbox of the Office of the Ombudsman, particularly where respondents do not properly respond to our inquiries.”
Joseph said 2022 had been a watershed year in having the most resolved cases in a 12-month period.
Elsewhere, the report said the 150 summonses had led to the resolution of 295 matters/complaints.
These matters included delays in retirement benefits, delays in increment and gratuity payments, help sought to build box drains, and public health issues at municipal level.
The number of summonses in recent years was nine in 2018, four in 2019, one in 2020, 12 in 2021 and 150 in 2022.
More broadly, the report said in 2022 the ombudsman had received 1,098 complaints. Of these 658 were deemed eligible for investigation by the ombudsman.
Of the 658 complaints, 464 remained under probe at year-end 2022, while 194 were variously concluded. The 194 consisted of 152 resolved, 40 discontinued and two withdrawn.
The report listed the number of complaints against The Top Five Defaulters for 2022.
The most complaints were made against the National Insurance Board (NIB) at 177 complaints, a near doubling from the year before.
Other complaints were made against the Ministries of Finance (69 complaints), Education (63), Health (55) and National Security (52).
The report also listed the ombudsman’s three areas of concern, namely the Ministry of Education, Housing Development Corporation (HDC) and National Insurance Board (NIB).
For 2022, the ombudsman received 63 fresh complaints against the Ministry of Education, compared to 30 in 2018, 28 in 2019, 31 in 2020, and 27 in 2021.
Of the 63 new complaints, 13 were resolved, two were discontinued a
