COMMENT FROM THE CAPITAL HOW WILL THE OMBUDSMAN’S AUTHORITY BE EXTENDED?

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31768, 27 August 1968, Page 16

COMMENT FROM THE CAPITAL HOW WILL THE OMBUDSMAN’S AUTHORITY BE EXTENDED?

<Bu Our Parliamentary Reporter)

WELLINGTON, August 26.—When a bill now before the Statutes Revision Committee becomes law, the powers of the Ombudsman will be extended to cover acts or decisions of officials of hospital boards and education boards. This has already promoted much discussion—and complaints about such actions and decisions are already reaching the Ombudsman’s office. But there is considerable argument as to whether, in practice, the bill really will extend the jurisdiction of the Ombudsman.

At present, the Ombudsman’s juridiction is limited to the Government departments named in a schedule to the Parliamentary Commissioner Act. The addition of hospital and education board officers to the schedule would not give the Ombudsman power to investigate the decisions of the boards themselves. Indeed, any secretary of a hospital board or education board who makes a decision he realises may be questioned may refer it to his board. Once the board confirms it, the decision will be removed from the Ombudsman’s power. The question then arises: Is there a genuine demand for the powers of the Ombudsman to be extended to embrace the decision of local and regional bodies as well as those of their servants? If the answer is yes, then it is obvious that the Ombudsman’s staff will have to be heavily reinforced. Today, Sir Guy Powles is accomplishing an impressive volume of work with the aid of a staff of five—three officers and two typists. The officers are responsible for three phases of examination of the complaints which flow in. They deal with the legal, investigative and administrative aspects of each complaint before it reaches the decision stage. Limit Of Policy Introducing the amending bill, the Minister of Justice (Mr Hanan) told Parliament that the Government was fulfilling an undertaking made in its 1966 election policy. The policy he referred to said that the Government would extend the jurisdiction "to the acts or decisions of those local authorities which draw their funds from money appropriated by Parliament.”

Whether the amending bill has really carried out promises, and whether it goes far enough, are questions already being asked by critics. The acts of doctors, teachers and others, as well as decisions of city, borough and county councils, are still specifically excluded. Another Bill Members of the Cabinet have been noncommittal about whether another) Ombudsman amendment bill will be introduced this session. This year’s conference of the National Party passed a remit that the jurisdiction of the Ombudsman should be extended to all local authorities. Reminded of this in Parliament by the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Kirk), Mr Hanan said it was a matter of which the Government

must take some notice, but added: “The Government is not bound by a National Party decision. It feels it has a mandate from the people of New Zealand to present a bill covering hospital and education boards. Before we extend it we want to hear all the evidence, particularly from the local bodies.”

The Constitutional Society has already expressed its view that local bodies should be included in the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction. This was put best in an address given recently by a vice-president of the society, Mr D. J. Hewitt, to the Parliamentary Press Gallery. Grievances Mr Hewitt said that many grievances arose from the decisions of local bodies and the way in which their decisions were carried out by their employees. The compulsory, taking of land under the Public Works Act had been the subject of much criticism. “Sometimes land has been taken by local bodies for a specific purpose and then not used,” Mr Hewitt said. “Sometimes such land has been sold again without giving the original owner the opportunity of buying it back. . . .

There is the widespread belief that some local bodies spend a good deal of money for which value is not obtained. Ratepayers should be entitled to have such expenditure examined by an impartial investigator.” _ Mr Hewitt made the point that where statutory powers are exceeded and where there is a misuse of power it is often beyond the means of the average citizen to fight a local body in the courts.

Hundreds Of Complaints

“It is essential that the decisions of local bodies, as well as the acts of their employees, should be subject to investigation,” Mr Hewitt said. “It will be readily appreciated that all employees are required to implement these decisions. It is particularly important that the jurisdiction of the Ombudsman should extend to all local bodies, and not just to hospital boards and education boards. The Ombudsman’s report reveals that hundreds of complaints have been receiv- ' ed over the years against various local bodies: but the Ombudsman has no power to investigate them.” Mr Hanan’s view, as stated during his remarks on the introduction of the new Bill, is that hospital and education board officials should be included because they worked on funds drawn from money appropriated by Parliament. The Constitutional Society’s view is that, as local bodies

derive their powers from legislation, Parliament is the authority to whom the Ombudsman should report on their performance. Civic Ombudsman

The idea of a civic Ombudsman, presumably working on a level separate from that of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Investigations, has arisen from the practice established in the United Kingdom, which followed New Zealand's lead in appointing commissioners for investigations. In Britain, however, the work of the civic Ombudsman seems to be involved with that of a consumer advisory service. Britain’s first civic Ombudsman (Mr J. Lavery Cook) began work in Bristol late in 1966, prepared to investigate complaints against the City Council and about consumer goods. Mr Cook is not a servant of Parliament, but of the local authority; and his consumer service has no statutory powers. The Constitutional Society would probably not be satisfied with a similar arrangement here; it would insist on the regional Ombudsman being responsible to Parliament. A duplication of offices is not likely. A considerable expansion of the present Ombudsman’s staff may be expected. The present bill, if passed without drastic amendment, will inevitably add to the volume of work passing through the office. An extension of the Ombudsman's work in the future to other local bodies might well include the appointment of civic and regional investigators. The 1960 Minute It is interesting to note that the original ideas for the establishment of the office of Ombudsman in New Zealand seem to have come from the Deputy Prime Minister (Mr Marshall), not from Mr Hanan. At a policy committee meeting of the National Party on April 2, 1960, Mr Marshall expressed his ideas concerning the establishment of an administrative appeal authority responsible to Parliament. In support of this, he wrote the following minute: “The National Party believes that good government in a democracy requires the co-operation of the people in accepting as fair and reasonable the decisions of the administration.

“To ensure that members of the public, in dealing with departments of State, have the right and opportunity to obtain an independent review of administrative decisions, the National Party proposes to establish an appeal authority.

“Any person concerned in an administrative decision may have the decision reviewed. The procedure should be simple and provide for review to be by written application or, in appropriate cases, by hearing. To avoid frivolous appeals, a reasonable fee should be charged, to be refunded in the event of the appeal being successful.

“The appeal authority should be an independent person responsible not to the Government but to Parliament The authority should have access to departmental files and the power to summon witnesses.” It might be wise if, before arguing for a general extension of the Ombudsman's powers, those who advocate further reforms should examine the spirit behind the original minute.