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JUSTICE HONG KONG BRANCH
portance. It is then up to the Executive or the Legislature to remedy the situation as seems best. Within the confines of this somewhat limited power, though, it is agreed that the Ombudsman must be equipped with the powers of enquiry listed in the Conclusions to the Bangkok conference referred to above, and he must clearly be independent, so far as possible, of the Executive.
Finally, the function of an Ombudsman, in a nut-shell, is the investigation of an administrative act by a Government Department or officer whereby any person is aggrieved, or in the opinion of the Ombudsman, may be aggrieved.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Having come to the conclusion that there is an urgent need for an Ombudsman in Hongkong, we recommend that one be appointed as soon as possible, and we set out our other recommendations in detail:-
Title
We consider that his title in English should be "Ombudsman" as this name is already well known in Hongkong and that his appro- priate title in Chinese should be "E" because phonetically the names in English and Chinese are much alike and more impor- tantly because its translation "Commission for Comforting and Protecting (People)" is very descriptive of his duties.
Qualifications
As we have said above, the official appointed should be a respected figure, a person of known integrity and a man of action who captures the imagination of the people. It would be desirable that he should be familiar with local conditions, with a good working knowledge of spoken Cantonese and not a past or present member of the Hong Kong Government Service.
The Ombudsman should not hold any office of trust or profit, other than his office as Ombudsman, or engage in any occupation for reward outside the duties of his office.
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