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Constitution and Administration

The Hong Kong Police Force and the Independent Commission Against Corruption are two exceptions to this jurisdiction. However, the Ombudsman is empowered to investigate complaints of non-compliance with the Code on Access to Information against all government departments, including these two bodies.

Besides investigating complaints, the Ombudsman may initiate direct investigations into matters of public interest and widespread concern, and publish the reports, so as to redress administrative flaws of a systemic nature and addressing fundamental problems or underlying causes for complaint.

The Ombudsman completed six direct investigations in 2013-2014, which concerned:

Regulation of sale of chilled meat;

• Control of healthcare professions not subject to statutory regulation;

• 'Special Procedures' of Buildings Department for handling unauthorised building works cases involving celebrities;

• Mechanism of Transport Department for monitoring the frequencies of franchised bus services;

• The access to information regime in Hong Kong; and

• Public records management in Hong Kong.

The reports of all direct investigations are available on the website.

The Office received 12,767 enquiries and 5,624 complaints in the reporting year 2013-2014. Areas attracting a substantial number of complaints related to error, wrong decision or advice, ineffective control, delay/inaction, lack of response to complaints/enquiries and staff attitude.

Although the Ombudsman has no authority to enforce recommendations, 87.6 per cent of the Ombudsman's recommendations have been accepted by the organisations concerned.

Audit Commission

The Audit Commission, headed by the Director of Audit, is established under the Basic Law which provides that it shall function independently and be accountable to the Chief Executive of the HKSAR.

The Audit Ordinance provides for the audit of the government's accounts by the Director of Audit and for the submission of the director's 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 other funds. In addition, the director reviews the financial aspects of the operations of the multifarious government-subvented organisations,

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