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Complaints to the Ombudsman have risen by half since the handover, Ombudsman Alice Tai Yuen-ying  told lawmakers yesterday.

Her office received 3,073 complaints in the 1997-98 financial year, but 4,645 in the last financial year, she said.

Ms Tai was responding to a question by lawmaker Fernando Cheung Chiu-hung  about why the Office of the Ombudsman had failed to meet its performance pledge of concluding 60 per cent of cases within three months and the remaining 40 per cent in three to six months. Only 43.3 per cent of cases last year were concluded within three months.

'You can tell there has been a substantial increase in our workload,' she said. 'We set those targets in 1997 when our workload was smaller, but despite that, we have tried to follow the performance pledge.'

Dr Cheung  suggested making a more realistic performance pledge.

Ms Tai said an internal review of the Ombudsman Ordinance was still under way. Her office was researching the possibility of extending the powers of the Ombudsman by putting more organisations  under its purview.

The Frontier lawmaker Emily Lau Wai-hing  asked which organisations were being considered, but Ms Tai said this was information that would only be revealed once the review was complete.

The Electoral Affairs Commission has been suggested as one organisation that ought to be covered by the ordinance.

The Ombudsman completed five direct investigations last year and made 270 recommendations to the government, of which more than 97 per cent were accepted.



Ombudsman cases leap since handover