AUSTRALIA | Ombudsman South Australia presents Annual Report 2019-20

The South Australian (SA) Ombudsman is a statutory officer appointed by the Governor upon recommendation made by resolution of both Houses of Parliament. The Ombudsman is thus a Parliamentary officer who exists to serve South Australians by scrutinising executive and local government on behalf of the Parliament for the purpose of ensuring fairness and integrity in public administration.

As in previous years, the Ombudsman SA completed several investigations that led to important, systemic changes in public administration. The reports of these investigations have been published on the Ombudsman SA website. The Office’s role of reviewing government decision making and actions with a view to resolving citizen’s grievances is another means of keeping government accountable.

In 2019-20, nearly 4,000 complaints have been handled by the Ombudsman SA. The Office has the vital role of reviewing Freedom of Information (FOI) determinations by agencies. In this reporting year, the Ombudsman received 273 external review requests and completed 278. This is the highest number of external reviews received and completed in any single year since 2014.

Source: Office of the Ombudsman South Australia