Ombudsman determinations’ non-compliance at 80 percent 

About 80 percent of Ombudsman determinations are not complied with, a situation blamed on lack of punitive laws and administrative inefficiencies in public institutions.

The Ombudsman Grace Malera, in her latest report to Parliament which outlines how her office fared in implementing its programmes, puts the compliance rate at 18 percent. 

 “The determination compliance rate of the cases followed up in 2020 was at 18 percent. Some of the causes for this being lack of urgency by some respondents when it comes to complying with the directives,” the Ombudsman reports.

The Office of Ombudsman’s roles include receiving and investigating complaints of alleged maladministration by public institutions and determining appropriate remedies.

Malera further observed that lack of compliance is also a result of some government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) not supporting officers assigned to fulfil the determinations.

She said: “Though some respondents have desk officers, they are not financially supported by their respective offices to carry out their investigations in order to comply with the determinations.

 “Some desk officers do not know what is expected of them to fulfil their part such as compliance or application for review by the High Court if dissatisfied with the decision.

 “It was also noted that some offices had poor record keeping systems, which made it difficult for them to easily finalise the payment process.”

The Ombudsman expressed the need to sensitise key government institutions in the funds’ disbursement chain on the need to honour the determinations.

She said: “There is a need to engage MDAs such as Auditor General and Accountant General to sensitise them on remedies that demand maintaining money value. Some respondents face resistance from these MDAs when processing payment, which in turn results in the complainants receiving their dues with loss of monetary value due to the delays.”

On recommendations, the Ombudsman asks the “Legal Affairs Committee of Parliament to play a role in ensuring that MDAs respond and act on the Ombudsman’s determinations.”

She further asks “Parliament to strengthen the legal and other enabling laws to enhance the roles and effectiveness of the office.”

Section 124 of the country’s Constitution empowers the Ombudsman to “initiate contempt proceedings before the High Court against any person or authority in connection with non-compliance with the powers conferred in this section.”

However, as we went to press, the Ombudsman had not yet responded to our questionnaire as to how it has been exploiting those powers.

Meanwhile, the Parliamentary Legal Affairs Committee chairperson Peter Dimba has acknowledged that they have not done enough to support the Ombudsman enforce determinations.

But he said the committee has now demanded a list of non-compliant MDAs.

Said Dimba: “When we met the Ombudsman, we asked her to give us a list of government departments that are not complying with the determinations so that we grill them.

“The Office of the Ombudsman is actually constitutional and, therefore, it is important that all controlling officers that are affected by the determinations that they are compliant.”

In 2020, the Office received 1142 complaints out of which 601 were under ordinary investigations, 319 were labour-related while 282 were service-related.