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David Baele appointed Ombudsman.be President
The Board of Directors of the Belgian Network of Ombudsmen, Ombudsman.be, has appointed Federal Ombudsman David Baele as the new President of the network. He succeeds Marc Bertrand. Catherine De Bruecker, the Ombudsman of Brussels, will also replace him as a member of the Board of Directors.
The network highlights the work of ombudsman institutions, improves accessibility to their services, and promotes cooperation and the exchange of good practices among the different ombudsmen. "We will continue to focus on these goals," explains David Baele. "We aim to collaborate even more effectively within the network and to inform citizens and businesses better and in a more accessible way. It is not always easy to know who to turn to when faced with a problem. Our next project will be the renewal of the Ombudsman.be portal website, so that citizens and businesses can quickly find the ombudsman they need when experiencing an issue with a public service or a company."
Ombudsman.be is the Belgian network that brings together nearly 30 ombudsmen from various levels of government: national, regional, communities, city and local levels, as well as ombudsmen from public companies (such as SNCB and Bpost) and the private sector. Citizens can turn to them when they encounter a problem with a public service or a company and are unable to resolve it directly with the administration or the organisation itself. All ombudsmen work independently, and citizens can use their services free of charge.
David Baele has been the Dutch-speaking Federal Ombudsman since July 2020. He co-leads the Federal Ombudsman service with his French-speaking colleague, Jérôme Aass. He studied administrative sciences and public management and has worked for several federal administrations. Before becoming Federal Ombudsman, he was a project manager at the Agency for Administrative Simplification for four years. He also worked for seven years at the High Council of Justice.
Source: The Federal Ombudsman, Belgium
