At the “Role of Ombudsman Bureau in National Integrity" Seminar

The JOB Seeks to Deepen Basis of Integrity, Transparency, Justice and Equal Opportunities in the Public Sector – HE Al-Kurdi

AMMAN---February 27, 2013-------The Policy Development Forum (PDF) hosted on Tuesday HE Mr. Abdul Elah Al-Kurdi, head of the Jordanian Ombudsman Bureau (JOB) in a seminar entitled "The Role of Ombudsman Bureau in National Integrity," at Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Knowledge Forum.

At the beginning of the seminar, moderated by HE Mr. Hassan Abu Nemeh, Al-Kurdi extended his gratitude to members of the Forum headed by HE Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh for his continuous support to the creative ideas and his constant concern with the national issues that affect all citizens stating that the Forum combines facts with future expectations to come up with accurate depiction of the development situation and its potential course based on scientific standards and far away from any influence making therefore a real support for decision makers in formulating future policies according to clear and well-defined goals.

The Jordanian Ombudsman Bureau (JOB) was established to assist citizens with the fair and expeditious resolution of complaints related to governmental entities and functions in an impartial, confidential and independent manner. The JOB began operations in February of 2009.

Al-Kurdi stated that integrity, transparency and encountering all forms of injustice and fighting corruption are goals that couldn’t be achieved by one entity however, it would be the output of a national integrated effort starting with the political will, along with the government and its performance, and the Parliament with the national monitoring institution, in addition to media and civil society institutions.

Al-Kurdi stated that the Bureau started receiving complaints on February 1, 2009, by the end of December 2012, the total of the accumulated complaints reached (8066). He also said that the JOB released three annual reports tackling accomplishments in 2009, 2010 and 2011. “The reports included statements that reflected the success of the Bureau in solving around 78% of the total complaints where wrong conduct was proved to be committed by the management. After investigation, more than 50% out of the complaints which turned to incorporate no administrative errors. The Bureau answered the complainer along with the legal clarification.”

Al-Kurdi pointed out that grievances from the administrative decisions had the lion share of the total complaints against the public management and southern governorates Kerak, Tafileh, Aqaba, Ma'an along with Ajlun topped the Kingdom’s governorates in the number of complaints compared to the number of inhabitants. He also revealed that the Civil Service Bureau topped the institutions with the higher number of complaints which reflects the citizens’ critical need for job opportunities.

On the objectives of the JOB, he said that “the aim of establishing the Bureau is to deepen basis of integrity, transparency, justice and equal opportunities in the public sector. It achieves all these goals by receiving complaints that incorporate the decisions, procedures or practices of the public administration in coordination with the public administration in question of the complaint and present a recommendation to the administration, if no response was achieved, the recommendation to be submitted to the Prime Minister, Upper and Lower Houses through the annual report.

“We are satisfied with the level of cooperation and coordination with the different administrations, yet, we encounter some problems including late response to our inquiries, lack of response to our recommendations or at least providing a convincing reason for its decision without

He stressed on the Bureau’s role in fighting corruption and in particular the corruption of the general public administration through its monitoring of its decisions, practices and procedures.

He also stated that the JOB contributes to the development of the performance of the public administration and the excellence of its services in addition to creating an investment environment that attracts investors and consequently boost economic development when the investor is certain of the accuracy of the administration’s decisions and procedures.

Al-Kurdi stressed that the most issues that affects a citizen is to deepen his/her feel of injustice mainly from the public administration which negatively affects important principles and values such as persistence, loyalty, giving and weakens spirits of citizenship and belonging.

Following the lecture, questions from the attendees on the mechanism of the Bureau’s work enriched the dialogue and discussions.  

The Policy Development Forum (PDF) was established in June 2011 as an independent initiative. The Forum's mandate is to study and revise reports submitted on economic issues and to conduct its own economic studies and research in Jordan.