By Staff Writer
OLOs or Ombudsman Liaison Officers are stepping up the Ombudsman Office’s role of settling disputes in Government Ministries and Corporations with special training carried out this week.
Senior officers nominated from about 30 Government agencies learned basic complaint handling and investigation skills from the exercise.
The liaison officers are brought in as Phase 2 of the proactive Ombudsmanship Rollout project to make it possible for Office and Government agencies to assist the Ombudsman.
Government agencies will be more aware of the Ombudsman’s work as an ‘eternal complaints handler’ through these trained liaison officers.
The Ombudsman Office in turn will support and advice the setting up of complaints handling systems and better working relations in Ministries and Corporations with liaison officers as the link people.
Visiting New Zealand Ombudsman, Misa Peter Boshier with his delegation of four staff members ran the training jointly with his counterparts in Samoa.
Misa inspired the participants in their new role as critical because “…it can help solve matters quickly before they escalate into formal complaints”
The Chief Ombudsman gave an example from New Zealand where a member of the public lodged a complaint relating to a NZ agency and it only took a phone call to that agency to solve the situation swiftly.
“We were able to address the situation at the early resolution stage of our process through relationships established in that agency to get a solution quickly”.
The Ombudsman of Samoa, Luamanuvao Katalaina Sapolu, added by complimenting the participants for taking up their new role.
“I know this is the foundation to strengthening working partnerships with public agencies in the way we respond to concerns of our citizens and effectively using those concerns to better public service delivery”