The Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) was established by
statute in 1974.
However, unlike other Ombudsmen they were never made accountable. [The LGO is
also founder members of the British and Irish Ombudsman's Association
(BIOA).
Paradoxically, one of the criteria for membership of the British and Irish
Ombudsman's Association is accountability.]
As a result Local Government Ombudsmen, free of any accountability over the last
32 years, have been able to introduce some of the most bizarre policies and
perverse procedures that anyone could imagine. They have turned the organisation
from one that is supposed to investigate complaints of maladministration into
one does everything in its power to bury maladministration. Things became so bad
during the 90's that people who had suffered further injustice at the hands of
Local Government Ombudsmen were galvanised into action. During 2003 one such
person launched the
Ombudsman watch web-site
to help expose the dubious tactics of the then LGO. As a result more and more
people are now coming forward to tell their story and provide further evidence
of how far the LGO organisation has deteriorated over the years. During 2005 a
number of people
gave evidence to a government select committee
about the unfair, unjust and unaccountable LGO. Interestingly, no one gave
evidence in support of the LGO.
As a result of adverse publicity the LGO has now introduced a policy
of maximising good publicity whilst trying to minimise the impact of bad
publicity. The following is one example of their new evangelical policy;
Following the damning evidence submitted to the select committee by a
number of complainants an article was written by Dr Richard Kirkham purporting
to be a complainant's view of the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO). However,
nothing could be further from the truth. We doubt Dr. Kirkham even bothered to
speak to a complainant before writing his article. His article is so pro LGO one
could be excused for thinking it was written by a friend of the LGO. After
reading his article we decided to find out just who
Dr. Kirkham was
and soon discovered that far from being independent he, like the LGO, is also
member of the BIOA. Things must be bad if the LGO have to get their friends and
colleagues to write positive articles about them in order to shore up their
evangelical agenda.
Dr. Kirkham states in his article 'In a recent
Parliamentary review of the work of the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO), the
Select Committee on the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister received a number of
submissions from dissatisfied users of the service provided by the LGO (Select
Committee on the ODPM, 2004-2005, Ev 16-28). In amongst these submissions, there
were even proposals for the abolition of the LGO (ibid., Ev 26). To a certain
extent, such criticisms misunderstand the purpose of public sector redress
mechanisms and the remit of the Ombudsmen.' Obviously
he forgot about Sir Geoffrey Chipperfield effectively suggesting that during his 1995 review
of the LGO.In any event, we don't misunderstand the purpose of public
sector redress mechanisms or the remit of the Ombudsman. However, Local
Government Ombudsmen and their friends obviously do and that's why we fully support their
abolition.
If you register you can download a full copy of Dr Kirkham's article
here.
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