Islamabad, the 7^th March, 2019

PRESS RELEASE

• OMBUDSMAN ORDERED ALL FEDERAL GOVT. DEPARTMENTS TO FORMULATE INTEGRATED COMPLAINT MECHANISM & SOP TO DEAL PUBLIC COMPLAINTS.
• OMBUDSMAN ORDERED TO RESOLVE EVERY COMPLAINT WITHIN 30 DAYS.

            Syed Tahir Shahbaz, Federal Ombudsman has directed all federal government ministries and departments to formulate an integrated complaint mechanism and SOP to deal public complaints.  He said that a focal person of the department was bound to resolve every public within 30 days.  He was chairing a high level meeting to evaluate the status of implementation of directions regarding Public Complaint Resolution Mechanism (PCRM).  The focal persons/representatives of all ministries and departments attended the meeting.  Hafiz Ahsaan Ahmed Khokhar, Grievance Commissioner for Overseas Pakistanis presented a detailed briefing and said that out of 280 departments, 263 departments had appointed their focal persons.  He informed that at present, the complaint resolution mechanism of 22 departments had been integrated/linked in first phase with the PCRM of wafaqi mohtasib and 18 more departments would be integrated by the end of March, 2019. He added that by the end of July, 100 more departments would integrate with the complaint management system of WMS.  He also informed that as per PCRM, 16280 complaints of 22 departments which had not been resolved within 30 days, transferred to our system and admitted for proper investigation, whereas, 18 more agencies would be integrated to this system from 6^th April, 2019.  

            Syed Tahir Shahbaz, Federal Ombudsman while addressing to the participants emphasized to resolve every complaint within 30 days.  He also ordered to start training of the focal persons of 18 departments to handle Public Complaint Resolution Mechanism.  He appointed Dr. Iram A. Khan, Additional Secretary as Focal Person of Wafaqi Mohtasib Secretariat to deal such issues of training and integrated complaint management system.  The representatives of some departments raised some working problems in handling of complaints. The Ombudsman ordered to further streamline the entire complaint management system with the ministries & departments and to establish a regular liaison with all the linked departments to resolve complaints in a speedy manner.