KP Ombudsman Secretariat records to be digitised

PESHAWAR: A plan has been prepared to digitize the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ombudsman Secretariat records and introduce Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to boost the efficiency of the staff.

“The capacity building of the secretariat staff as well as those at the regional offices is needed to enhance the efficacy of the investigation officers and advisors as well and the ICT is expected to do the needful,” said Provincial Ombudsman Syed Jamaluddin Shah while speaking at a function in the presence of Secretary at Ombudsman Secretariat Johar Ali Shah and Director General Syed Muazzam Jamil.

He said that although the paucity of resources was a challenge for the secretariat, yet that would be overcome with time with the support of the KP government. “Most of the departments are fully cooperating and implementing the Ombudsman Secretariat orders. But we may approach the chief secretary for intervention if some institutions do not cooperate and hesitate in honouring recommendations to resolve the cases as such a situation causes resentment to complainants,” said Syed Jamaluddin Shah.

Pointing to the slow pace of case decisions in some cases, the ombudsman said investigation officers should speed up the process and wrap up the cases well in time. He agreed to a proposal to hold coordination meetings of various regional staff offices staff in Peshawar to make them familiar with the main office work.

Earlier, the officials said that 1764 were received in July and the disposal ratio remained at 29 percent.The performance of regional offices came under discussion. It was decided to host separate meetings for heads of regional offices of Swat, Dera Ismail Khan and Abbottabad to discuss the other problems faced by regional offices and have them addressed.

The Media Cell of the Ombudsman Secretariat presented a detailed three months plan with activities to be started with the hosting of Media Dialogue with the ombudsman in the last week of this month. It was decided to launch an awareness campaign at the university level while electronic and print media would be engaged to raise more awareness in public during the campaign.