As a body responsible for redressing grievances arising from maladministration, the Ombudsman is supposed to keep government departments on their toes so they will not abuse their powers.
But whether the quality and standards of public service will be enhanced as a result really depends on how the departments deal with complaints against their action or inaction. It is conceivable that risk-averse civil servants, on seeing a letter from the Ombudsman, will simply grant the complainant what he or she wants in order to avoid trouble.
From a purely cost-and-benefit point of view, some civil servants may feel that caving in to minor complainants is a better option than spending time to defend themselves, even though they are in the right. Unfortunately, such an attitude tends to encourage more and more people to try to get what they want by taking their 'grievances' to the Ombudsman.
Apparently, in the view of Alice Tai Yuen-ying, the Ombudsman, a lot of that has been going on. 'Some complainants have their own agenda and use my office to press for their own desired outcome,' she said.
Some will find Ms Tai criticising government departments for yielding to 'unworthy' complainants a little strange. Isn't the Ombudsman supposed to stand up for the complainants? But she has a point that it is also maladministration for a government department to provide services to those who should not be entitled to them.
Yet Ms Tai may have gone a bit too far in alleging that 'many complaints are lodged by citizens intent on getting their pound of flesh from public servants and not really to seek protection from maladministration or malpractice by public institutions'.
