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The reports of all direct investigations have been published and are available for public scrutiny at the office's Resource Centre.
The Ombudsman Ordinance also empowers The Ombudsman to investigate complaints of non-compliance with the Code on Access to Information against government departments, including the Hong Kong Police Force and the Independent Commission Against Corruption. The Ombudsman is also empowered to act as an independent review body in respect of an alleged breach of the code.
The office received 12 315 enquiries and 6 200 complaints in 2007, compared with 15 309 enquiries and 4 617 complaints in 2006. The areas attracting substantial numbers of complaints were related to error, wrong advice or decision, failure to follow procedures or delay, negligence or omission, disparity in treatment, lack of response to complaints, staff attitude and ineffective control.
Although The Ombudsman has no authority to enforce her recommendations, over 94 per cent of the recommendations made have been accepted by the organisations concerned.
Office of the Director of Audit
The Audit Commission is established under the Basic Law, which provides that the Audit Commission shall function independently and be accountable to the Chief Executive of the HKSAR. The Audit Commission is one of Hong Kong's oldest departments; the first Auditor-General was appointed in 1844.
The Audit Ordinance, enacted in 1971, provides for the audit of the Government's accounts by the Director of Audit and for the submission of his report to the President of the Legislative Council. The director also audits the accounts of the Exchange Fund, the Hong Kong Housing Authority, five trading funds and more than 60 statutory and non-statutory funds and other public bodies. In addition, the director reviews the financial aspects of the operations of the multifarious government-subvented organisations.
The Director of Audit carries out two types of audit: regularity audits and value-for-money audits. Regularity audits are intended to provide an overall assurance of the general accuracy and propriety of the financial and accounting transactions of the Government and other audited bodies. The Audit Ordinance gives the director statutory authority to conduct regularity audits.
Value-for-money audits are intended to provide independent information, advice and assurance about the economy, efficiency and effectiveness with which any bureau of the Government Secretariat, department, agency, other public body, public office or audited organisation has discharged its functions. Except for some public organisations where the Director of Audit has obtained statutory authority to conduct value-for-money audits, value-for-money audits are carried out according to a set of guidelines tabled in the Provisional Legislative Council by the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee in 1998.