Government ‘obstruction’ over grievance processes

Government ‘obstruction’ over grievance processes

During the hearing, which was held yesterday in the States Assembly building, board chairman Geoffrey Crill criticised ministers and officials for allowing the case, which related to a recruitment issue, to drag on for so long and not even sending anyone to attend the sitting.

And he said that he would be happy to see the SCB replaced with an ombudsman or similar body with stronger enforcement powers, should the government continue to treat the complaints process ‘with contempt’.

The hearing in question related to Bradley Chambers, who attended despite having dropped his complaint over a recruitment issue. He explained that he attended to highlight the delays and lack of engagement he had experienced in relation to his case, which was raised more than 12 months ago.

‘I have already received an apology. I would like reassurance that my experiences are not replicated,’ he said.

The complaint had been made against the Chief Operating Office over the recruitment process involving the Health and Community Services Department, following confusion over whether he had the correct work and housing qualifications to apply for a role.

Mr Crill said that it was ‘quite inappropriate’ that a complaints board matter should take a year to come to the stage of a hearing.

He added that he believed the matter had been ‘deliberately obstructed’ by the government refusing to engage with the process.

‘For the process to be obstructed says to my mind that the government is not willing to maintain independent, transparent oversight of its processes,’ he said.

‘If that is the case, then the sooner an ombudsman or some other authority with effective power is brought in the better. I hope that the government will note these comments in the spirit in which they are intended.’

The SCB currently only acts on an advisory basis to ministers and officials and cannot take any enforcement action itself.

In a statement released before the hearing, Mr Crill openly criticised the Chief Minister and Chief Operating Office for not engaging with the complaints process and declining to send a representative to attend the hearing.

The minister and the department have claimed that the hearing was out of the jurisdiction of the complaints panel.

Mr Crill said: ‘I am very disappointed with the stance taken in relation to this case, particularly as, not for the first time, a minister or department has raised a jurisdictional challenge at the eleventh hour, having had the papers for a number of months.

‘That is unhelpful to the process and extremely unfair to the individual complainant, who has an expectation that the hearing will go ahead.’

The introduction of a public sector ombudsman was one of the recommendations of the Clothier report on government reform published in 2000.

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