ENG-2006 — Page 52

24 | Constitution and Administration

Apart from investigating complaints, The Ombudsman may initiate direct investigations of its own volition into matters of public interest and widespread concern, and publish the reports. This proactive and preventive approach aims at addressing problems affecting a broad spectrum of the community. The direct investigations are particularly useful in redressing administrative flaws of a systemic nature and addressing fundamental problems or underlying causes for complaint.

Since 1994, when The Ombudsman was empowered to undertake direct investigations, 57 such investigations have been completed four of them in 2006. These four concerned:

• Monitoring of assigned-out cases by the Legal Aid Department;

• The medical fee waiver system;

• Administration of The Mid-levels Administrative Moratorium; and

• The System for Processing Applications for Disability Allowance by the Social Welfare Department.

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 15 309 enquiries and 4 617 complaints in 2006, compared with 14 400 enquiries and 4 389 complaints in 2005. 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 its recommendations, over 95 per cent of the recommendations made have been accepted by the organisations concerned in 2006.

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