ENG-2007 — Page 60

24 | Constitution and Administration

Since December 2001, the office had severed its links with the Administration and had become a corporation sole. It has set up its own administrative system and now recruits contract staff on terms and conditions determined by The Ombudsman.

Directly responsible to the Chief Executive, The Ombudsman serves as the community's monitor on government departments and public bodies specified in the schedule to the ordinance to ensure that:

• 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 its quality, transparency and efficiency.

Two exceptions to the monitoring system are the Hong Kong Police Force and the Independent Commission Against Corruption, both of which have their own separate bodies for dealing with public complaints.

The 18 major public organisations in the schedule are: the Airport Authority, Employees Retraining Board, Equal Opportunities Commission, Financial Reporting Council, Hong Kong Arts Development Council, Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority, Hong Kong Housing Authority, Hong Kong Housing Society, Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Hong Kong Sports Institute Limited, Hospital Authority, Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation, Legislative Council Secretariat, Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority, Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, Securities and Futures Commission, Urban Renewal Authority and Vocational Training Council.

Apart from investigating complaints, The Ombudsman may initiate direct investigations of her 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, 59 such investigations have been completed two of them in 2007. These two concerned:

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Monitoring of cases with statutory time limit for prosecution by the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department; and

• Assessment of children with specific learning difficulties

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