PIC NW Envoy participates in International Ombud’s Day in Cape Town – South Africa
This invitation from the Ombudsman Office Cape Town came as an opportunity for a Bench marking visit to the City Ombudsman’s Satellite offices and the functioning of some municipal services in the City of Cape Town.
The guest from Cameroon, Research Officer no.4 of the Office of the Public Independent Conciliator North-West Region, Dr. Alfred Wuku Kudi representing the Public Independent Conciliator of the North-West Region, was privileged to meet staff of the Ombudsman Office Cape Town. He learnt that most staff work from home through electronical means, using the internet.
A brief presentation of the complaint management procedure was done; remarkably a complaint management officer is in charge of overseeing the 60-day complaint treatment timeline; And another officer in charge of overseeing and follow-up of complex complaints that needs investigation.
The satellite offices work every Tuesday and they receive and transmit complaints to the Ombudsman’s office for treatment; All the three Ombudsman’s satellite offices visited were lodged in the city Municipal premises (centers); The satellite offices lodged at the municipal Centers are at the disposal of the users and beneficiaries of the municipal services to lodge their complaints base on prior appeal to the municipality.
Unlike in Cameroon where all municipal services are centralized only at the council head office. It was observed that the procedure for building permit is made public on notices with charges in respect to the city areas and the structure /building plan.
There is a compliance revenue Officer at each sub municipal center that oversee revenue collection for the city municipality.
The legal department of the city municipality is in charge of fines related to non-respect of: Town planning rules / traffic light and circulation, wrongful solid waste disposal. The non-respect to pay the stipulated fines by defaulters of the aforementioned are sent to court for arrest and judgement. The Municipal city produces a newsletter (magazine) every two months on update of the municipal activities.
There exists a public workspace with free internet access and lightening at the municipal building. There was exchange of notes as to what obtains in the Councils of the North West Region in Cameroon with a brief explanation as to their services, organization and functioning.
With the explanation, the municipal workers present were anxious to benchmark to understand more on the operation of the council services in Cameroon.
Celebrating OMBUD’s Day
A curtsey visit was paid to Desmond Tutu memorial foundation, the building hosting this foundation was where slaves were kept, memorial activities of Desmond Tutu as one of the nationalist founding fathers was placed on large billboards, video display of his activities on giant television screens within the foundation.
Followed by one-on-one discussion with some complaint management officers of the office of the city Ombudsman to have a practical session on their complaint management process. This exercise was to help the guest from Cameroon have full knowledge on how the Cape Town City function.
After visiting the City Centre, the city Ombudsman had an enlarged briefing session with all the senior staff of his Office and presented the Delegate from Cameroon to the staff.
The Ombudsman requested for an update on the level of their preparedness on the organized event at the Parow Civic Center and urged the staff to be at the ceremonial place on time and active ready to hear the members of the public and receive all the complaints as the occasion will be void of long speeches.
At the event, The City Ombudsman gave a brief opening statement as he highlighted the role of the City Ombudsman in service delivery and emphasized that has come to hear the concerns of everybody in line with the theme of the international Ombudsman day event ‘’Ombudsman – Here to hear you’’.
This was followed by a brief presentation from the representative of the Public Independent Conciliator from Cameroon, a presentation which triggered curiosity from the audience to understand more of the Cameroon’s experience on Ombudsman service delivery in Cameroon.
Other Ombuds services took the podium and presented their services in the following other: – Western Cape Police Ombudsman (WCPO), Office of the Consumer Protector (OCP), Community Schemes Ombuds Service (CSOS), National Financial Ombuds Scheme (NFO). The presentations were followed by a question-and-answer session.
The participants appreciated the move of the Ombudsman on the community engagement that has given them an opportunity to express their worries directly to him.
Meanwhile a Cameroonian in the hall appreciated the Cameroon’s ombudsman experience shared. Questions related to the functioning of the Ombuds services, were asked and answers given accordingly. Complainants addressed their complaints to the city departments and industry regulatory bodies that hosted the information tables to provide advice and assist members of the public to lodge Complaints.
It should be noted that the Ombudsman’s Office deals with last resort municipal related complaints about the City’s administration, as an office of last resort. This means that complainants would need to approach their first point of contact, such as the City’s Customer Relations Management Department or Sub council before approaching the Ombudsman Office.
The representative of the Public Independent Conciliator shared out a few communication gadgets of the Office of the Public Independent Conciliator North-West Region, Cameroon and exchanged contacts with the Ombudsman services present.
The bench marking was good as it gave the Public Independent Conciliator’s representative a practical learning opportunity and exchange of ideas as to how and what obtains elsewhere as to good practices.
