The ACT Ombudsman is to hold talks with the Chief Minister after he found a 20 per cent increase in the number of complaints against the territory Government and its agencies in the past financial year.
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Ombudsman Allan Asher said yesterday that complaints against the Government had shot up from about 500 in 2009-2010 to about 600 in 2010-2011 and that the Hawke Review shake-up of the bureaucracy had created confusion and inconsistency.
But Chief Minister Katy Gallagher said yesterday the Governments record did not reflect Mr Ashers position and that she was looking forward to discussing his "claims" at a meeting next week.
The Ombudsman told The Canberra Times last month that he expected to see complaints increase by 10 per cent in the past financial year and that the Government had been "ignoring" problems brought to its attention by citizens.
But Mr Asher said yesterday that a surge in complaints in the last month of the financial year, and more issues emerging in July, the first month of the reformed public service, had forced him to revise his estimate upwards and that Housing ACT and Corrective Services were accounting for a large proportion of the problems.
"For the whole of 2009-2010 we had over 500 matters of concern and its gone up to 600 in 2010-2011," Mr Asher said. "It's been a combination of things, lots of housing-related issues, and thats been a growth area. And we've seen a big increase in Corrective Services as well.
"But also, they've switched over to the new directorate system and I suppose that some of that is natural enough bedding down process. But otherwise it might not be getting done in the best way possible."
Mr Asher said there was confusion under the new nine-directorate structure about where citizens could go with complaints.
"Under the new structure, things are divided into up to three or four different directorates," he said. "The example I've been using is if you wanted to complain about a tree, there are four different directorates that might be involved in that, depending if it might be affecting sewerage pipes or gas pipes."
Mr Asher also said that some directorates were proving less interested than others in receiving complaints at all.
"It's a question of intent too, and quite a few of the agencies have been pretty good and want to make it work and all of that," he said.
"But some just don't seem to be putting enough effort into it.
"In the Justice and Community Safety area, for example, it's very, very hard to find your way through their complaints handling system. In fact, the best you'll get is something called customer feedback."
But Ms Gallagher said yesterday that Mr Ashers comments did not match the Governments estimates.
"The claims made by Mr Asher do not match our records," she said.
"I look forward to meeting him next week to discuss [this]."
