letter or through a personal visit. In most cases they are interviewed by a Complaints Officer of the UMELCO Office who endeavours to obtain all relevant information. Apart from enquiring with the Government authorities concerned, it is sometimes necessary to visit the site of a complaint, often with a representative of the department concerned, to understand the problem fully. A report is prepared on every interview and, together with any site visit report, this forms the basis of future enquiries and action.
The next step is to study the case in the light of Government policies and procedures. It is often necessary to ask the Government department concerned to comment or supply information on a case. In cases involving a matter of principle or policy, or containing controversial issues, and in all cases where a head of department's explanation appears to be inadequate or unsatisfactory, the Secretary General of the UMELCO Office may refer the case to the Unofficial Members who will consider what further action should be taken.
To ensure that UMELCO is able to deal with complaints and representations as speedily and thoroughly as possible, all heads of departments and Government officers are required to co-operate with UMELCO. Members may meet senior Government officers to discuss cases and, where necessary, challenge the action taken by departments. They may, for example, decide to speak or write personally to the head of department or seek a meeting with him in order to raise questions either about an individual case or on the policy behind it. Alternatively, they may raise the matter with a policy branch in the Government Secretariat. Members may also ask questions in the Legislative Council and when appropriate in the Executive Council to follow up any points they wish to clarify.
Each week a number of Members are on call, usually one Member of the Executive Council and a number of Legislative Councillors. The Duty Roster Members, as they are called, interview members of the public who ask to see them and examine reports on all cases handled by staff of the UMELCO Office's Complaints Division during the week.
To augment the duty roster system, Members of the relevant UMELCO
Panel may also be involved in hearing public complaints and representations. This can provide a specialist input, given the fact that the Duty Roster Members may not have the same intimate knowledge of the subject under complaint as members of the appropriate UMELCO Panel. After the hearing, Duty Roster Members and the Panel representative(s) will consider whether the case has policy implications and, if so, will refer the matter to the relevant UMELCO Panel for further consideration. Where necessary, Panel conveners may refer the matter to a full meeting of UMELCO for advice.
There are many examples where the UMELCO Redress System, by bringing to light the full facts and circumstances of a case, has brought about a re-appraisal by the Government departments concerned in favour of the complainant. In other cases a review at a higher level in the department concerned has resulted in the reversal of an unduly rigid decision or the favourable exercise of discretion in borderline cases.
On the other hand, it is inevitable that Members should sometimes find themselves unable to help a complainant either because, upon studying the case, they conclude that the complaint is unjustified; or the original decision of a Government department was the correct one; or the remedy sought cannot be supported. Moreover, some grievance cases brought to UMELCO fall outside the jurisdiction of Unofficial Members.
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For example, disputes between private individuals, disputes between employers and employees, including individual civil servants, matters which are sub-judice or may involve possible criminal charges, matters over which a statutory appeal has already been initiated or on which the Governor or the Governor-in-Council has made a decision, and matters for which a foreign Government is responsible. But even when a problem cannot be taken up, the staff of the UMELCO Office may still be able to offer some assistance or advice and always endeavour to do so, such as making enquiries or arranging appointments for the aggrieved party.
During the period under report, 3,356 new case files were opened to
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