The Public Service has just issued a new publication in the “Governance Action” series, where this time it is giving a statement of the cases brought forward by the Office of the Ombudsman and his Commissioners within the 2024 report. This was the eighth year that this exercise was carried out, as a result of strong governance structures within the Public Service that are bearing fruit, as well as proof of responsibility and accountability.

In this publication, one can find all the cases with the relevant comments about them. Among others, there are cases that were closed after immediate action was taken by the Public Administration. There were instances where the Administration provided information on how the case was handled and it turned out there was no need for the Ombudsman to continue investigating. It is worth mentioning that a significant percentage of the cases were resolved at the first clarification given by the Administration, which was deemed by the Ombudsman as sufficient.

The total number of cases mentioned by the Ombudsman amounts to 403: 324 new cases were submitted in 2024, and 79 cases from the previous years. This is also important as it indicates that cases which are not yet resolved are not lost from one year to the next, but continue to be followed up.

From the 324 cases from 2024, 253 cases (78%) were closed. 224 cases (88.5% of the 2024 closed cases) were closed without the need to issue a recommendation by the Ombudsman or the Commissioners, or after the Ministry gave its reply following the Ombudsman’s first request of information. 13 of the 253 closed cases (5.1%) had recommendations issued by the Ombudsman or the Commissioners. In 12 of these 13 cases (92.3%), a recommendation was implemented or noted for future cases.

There was only one recommendation, linked to a single case, which was not accepted.

All this means that 93.2% of the 2024 closed cases were addressed appropriately by the Public Administration.

There are 47 cases (14.5%) that are pending with the Ombudsman, while eight cases (2.5%) are pending with the ministries.

You can access the publication from here.