Monitoring system being set up at Ombudsman Secretariat

PESHAWAR: The Provincial Ombudsman Secretariat will put in place a monitoring system to assess staff performance and hold public forums at the district level to help citizens file complaints easily.

“The regional offices should arrange seminars to motivate the people in the districts to avail themselves of the cost facility to have their complaints addressed through this office,” said Provincial Ombudsman Syed Jamalud Din Shah, while chairing the Monthly Review meeting here on Thursday.

According to a press release, he directed the staff, particularly advisors and investigation officers, to highlight the role and objectives of the Provincial Ombudsman Secretariat by arranging public forums, meetings and seminars at the regional levels.

Syed Jamalud Din Shah called for making the regional offices more active to facilitate the complainants in native towns and thus lessening the burden of the cases at the Provincial Secretariat.

He pointed out that the awareness-raising campaign launched in the southern as well as in central districts had started yielding results as common people were turning to the Ombudsman Office with grievances against government institutions to have them addressed without spending any money.

Syed Jamalud Din Shah praised the role of the Media Cell of the Ombudsman Secretariat in highlighting the functions of this office which was motivating people to file cases for addressal. Earlier, the IT Section in charge gave a detailed presentation highlighting the performance of investigation officers, advisors and consultants.

It was added that the rate of the case disposal remained encouraging in April as most of the complaints were addressed within the timeline. The official said it had been decided that departments not sending representatives at the hearing stage of the cases would be served with notices and salaries of the non-cooperating government officials would be attached.