CHAPTER 6Promoting good administration

International cooperation and regional support

Under our international program we continued to work with colleagues in other Ombudsman offices to improve public sector capacity in the Pacific, Papua New Guinea (PNG), Thailand and Indonesia. The program assisted Ombudsmen in the region to develop management strategies tailored to their specific challenges through placements, short advisory visits, and ongoing dialogue.

Over the last twelve months, our programs focused on activities to broaden the social impact of high quality complaint investigation services.

• In Indonesia we continued working to extend access to the National Ombudsman Commission (NOC) to more people in more areas.
  
  
• Our work with the PNG Ombudsman Commission helped to reinforce cooperative relationships with other law and justice agencies, contributed to better use of information technology and helped reduce complaint backlogs.
  
  
• In the Pacific we strengthened our existing network of Pacific Island Ombudsmen and began to expand opportunities for those Pacific countries currently without an ombudsman.
  
  
• We completed a successful three-year partnership with the office of the Thai Ombudsman. In this final year, we supported activities to strengthen community outreach, to improve use of information technology and to reduce complaint backlogs.

Our work in PNG, Samoa and Thailand has built institutional capacity on a number of levels, giving individuals an opportunity to extend their professional skills, while also supporting larger scale institutional and sectoral change.

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PNG Ombudsman Commission police oversight project

The impact of the Twinning Program on the Ombudsman Commission of Papua New Guinea has been encouraging and very obvious. One area where the program has had a visible strategic impact is on the relationship between the Ombudsman Commission of Papua New Guinea and law enforcement agencies.

Mr John ToGuata, Director of Operations, Ombudsman Commission of PNG

A particular project of great importance in which the office has been involved is the PNG Ombudsman Commission Police Oversight Project. One step in this project was a placement in Canberra of Mr John Hevie, the PNG Ombudsman Commission manager responsible for overseeing the investigation of complaints about the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary. Mr Hevie observed our procedures for overseeing investigation reports of the AFP and the way our staff work collaboratively with the AFP in resolving complaints.

On his return to PNG, Mr Hevie was responsible for finalising the memorandum of agreement between the Ombudsman Commission and the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary. A senior investigator with our Law Enforcement Team worked with the Police Oversight Project during a placement to PNG to assess the resource implications and possible implementation issues of a range of oversight models.

On 1 June 2007 the Police Oversight Project entered a new stage in PNG with the signing of a memorandum of agreement between the Commissioner of Police and the Chief Ombudsman for an Ombudsman Oversight Mechanism for Complaints Against Police. The agreement aims to regain the public’s confidence in investigation of complaints against police personnel and represents a heightened commitment between the two agencies to work together in the best interests of the public.

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The Pacific Ombudsmen Network

During the year we participated in a forum with the Ombudsmen, or their representatives, from the Cook Islands, New South Wales, New Zealand, PNG, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu. The forum focused on building the framework for more regional cooperation in the Pacific Island Forum states.

Mr Maiava Inlai Toma, Ombudsman of Samoa has stated:

’Samoa has been directly assisted by the office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman under the umbrella of the ‘Pacific Ombudsmen Network’ since the earliest days of the Network’s establishment. Activities have focused on strengthening identified needs of the Ombudsman’s office. I have absolutely no complaints about the quality, either of the specific assistance given or of the people that were involved in its delivery. I would like to emphasise however that the benefit to us of involvement in the Network has been much more than functional improvements that may have been designed into the actual activities. The physical existence and operation of an Ombudsman office in a country that is not a mature democracy does not necessarily mean very much. In my own country, the priority task all along has been to achieve understanding, acceptance and respect for the Ombudsman function by the Government and by the people to be served by the Ombudsman. In this endeavour the existence of the Network and membership in it has been invaluable.

’It has to be borne in mind that conventional ombudsmanship is not something that one makes up as one goes along or brings about by a wave of a magic wand. Acceptance and respect for it has to be freely given for it to realise its potential as a powerful yet friendly tool for fairness and good governance that is indispensable in today’s democratic society. Pacific countries are striving for this ideal and they are spurred on by the achievements and successes in neighbouring countries where the ombudsman function is strong and well established. Involvement at the personal level with fellow ombudsmen from those jurisdictions and the latter’s own demonstrated interest in the strivings of the struggling Pacific Islands ombudsmen generate immense encouragement and reassurance. It is vital in my view that the Network be maintained as we know it today and that it be at the centre of regional efforts and developments in our area of interest.’

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Case Handling at the Office of the Thai Ombudsman

The Thai Ombudsman office has learned a great deal from the thirty-year experience of the Commonwealth Ombudsman ... Thai Ombudsman staff who received training came back with a fuller understanding of the Ombudsman’s task and operational systems. More than 70% of the officers who participated in the partnership program with the Commonwealth Ombudsman have subsequently been promoted to senior investigator and senior officer positions, and continue to support organisational development in their new roles. We hope that the relationship between the two offices will continue well into the future.

Ms Roypim Therawong, Deputy Section Head, Technical Support Division, Office of the Thai Ombudsman

During the year we hosted staff from the Thai Ombudsman office. They participated in ‘train the trainer’ seminars, covering issues such as dealing with difficult complainants, investigation planning, mediation and negotiation. On their return to Thailand a fortnightly training program was implemented for all Thai Ombudsman staff. The training manual was translated and published in the Thai Ombudsman Journal. More than 1,500 copies were distributed to schools, universities, institutes, government and non-government organisations, spreading the benefit of this program beyond the office to the general public.