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Constitution and Administration
The Ombudsman
The Ombudsman, established under The Ombudsman Ordinance, is the city's independent watchdog of public administration. She investigates actions by government departments and public bodies for administrative deficiencies and recommends remedial measures to improve the standard of public administration of Hong Kong.
Directly responsible to the Chief Executive, the Ombudsman serves as the community's monitor on government departments and 25 major public bodies specified in a schedule to the ordinance to ensure:
• bureaucratic constraints do not interfere with administrative fairness;
public authorities are readily accessible to the public;
• abuse of power is prevented;
wrongs are righted;
⚫ facts are pointed out when public officers are unjustly accused;
• human rights are protected; and
⚫ the public sector continues to improve quality and efficiency.
The Ombudsman is empowered to investigate complaints of non-compliance with the Code on Access to Information against all government departments, including those that are not listed in this schedule, such as the Hong Kong Police Force and the ICAC.
Besides investigating complaints, the Ombudsman may initiate direct investigations into matters of public interest and widespread concern, and publish the reports, so as to redress administrative flaws of a systemic nature and address fundamental problems or underlying causes of complaint.
The Ombudsman completed eight direct investigations in 2015-16, which concerned the:
• Rating and Valuation Department's regulation of display of building numbers;
⚫ regulation of fire safety measures for New Territories exempted houses;
• Water Supplies Department's mechanism for handling leaks of private water pipes;
• management of permitted burial grounds.
• method of calculation of waiting time for public rental housing and release of information;
• government's implementation of strengthened control of exhaust emissions from petrol and LPG vehicles;
• problems relating to enforcement of the Fire Safety (Buildings) Ordinance; and
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