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disclose the proceedings of Executive Council. In any such case, the Commissioner must not require evidence on these matters. Apart from this, the rule which provides for public interest privilege to be claimed for evidence or documents will not apply to any investigation (section 14(1)).
19. Section 15 requires the Commissioner and his staff to observe secrecy, save in so far as the Commissioner may decide that disclosure of information (unless it is the subject of a certificate under subsection (3)) is necessary in his report, to show the reasons for his conclusions.
20.
Under section 16 the Commissioner must report his opinion to the head of department affected, with his recommendations, if he considers that there is evidence of any breach of duty by any officers, or that a decision should be further considered, rectified, cancelled or varied, that any view of the law or any practice should be altered or reconsidered or that reasons should have been given or some other steps taken. The report may subsequently be sent to the Governor if not acted upon and the Commissioner may in the case of serious maladministration report to the Governor, so the report may be laid before the Council. By section 17, the complainant, and the member of the Legislative Council who referred the complaint, must be told of the result of any investigation and of the Commissioner's recommendations.
21. Part VI deals with supplementary matters. By section 18, publication of certain matters is absolutely privileged for the purposes of defamation actions. Section 19 makes it clear that an investigation does not relieve a department of its normal duty to take action on a matter of complaint. Section 20 gives a power of entry to the Commissioner, subject to safeguards where security considerations apply. Section 21 enables the Commissioner to delegate his powers to members of his staff and he must delegate when he is personally interested in a matter. Section 22 provides for him to present an annual report to the Governor, who shall lay it before the Legislative Council. Certain offences are listed in section 23; these deal with obstruction of, or making false statements to, the Commissioner and similar conduct. Section 24 enables the Governor in Council to amend Schedule 1 to make it conform to changes in, or additions to, the names or organization of government departments.
22.
The Commissioner is likely to require a staff of about 19 officers; on the other hand, the Complaints Division of the OMELCO office is likely to be able to reduce its staff by 4. The
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