More than 85% of the 318 complaints the public service received from the Ombudsman’s Office in 2021 were considered successfully closed by the Ombudsman or by his commissioners by the end of October 2022, according to a report launched by principal permanent Secretary Tony Sultana. 

The report - Governance Action on the Parliamentary Ombudsman’s Annual Report 2021 - gives an account of each case, with details on what actions were taken. An account is also given of pending cases from previous years.

Sultana said this is the highest rate of cases closed by the service since it started carrying out this governance exercise in the past years.

The rest of the cases were pending with the Ombudsman (8.8%), with ministries (3.5%), or referred to the Prime Minister (2.2%).

In the absolute majority of closed cases (93%), the investigations were closed by the Ombudsman without a recommendation being given.

This shows that the public service either acted correctly or addressed the complaint as soon as it received the case from the Ombudsman.

This report was launched during an internal conference organised for permanent secretaries and liaison officers involved in this process by the service.

The aim of the conference was to strengthen monitoring and governance, despite the high implementation rates. 

Sultana said this testified to the commitment of the service to, while continuing to modernise its structures and procedures, maintain the highest level of governance and accounting expected of it.