ISLAMABAD: Federal Ombudsman Syed Tahir Shahbaz has inaugurated an instant complaints resolution mechanism through the integrated Complaint Management Information System (CMIS) in federal departments and agencies to redress public grievances.

Speaking at the inaugural ceremony, he said the system operates in 118 federal ministries and departments where complaints are resolved within 60 days. He added that the organisation received complaints from the general public against 120 federal departments.

The Ombudsman’s Secretariat had already established the CMIS under which every agency or department had nominated a focal person designated as Grievance Liaison Officer for entertaining and resolving complaints relating to his department within 30 days.
He said people were filing more complaints about some ministries and therefore the ombudsman faced difficulties to handle the high number of applications. He added that the new system aims at helping resolve this issue.

If a ministry takes more than 30 days to resolve a complaint, it would automatically shift to the portal of the Federal Ombudsman and be resolved within the following 30 days. He said the relevant officers of these departments would be provided training.

Initially complaints of 19 departments are being linked to the system, while the remaining departments and ministries will be linked later. He said that the complainant does not need to hire a lawyer to get the complaint addressed in 60 days.

He said it was a collective responsibility to address maladministration, increase efficiency and bring transparency in the operation of the government machinery. He also appreciated the federal agencies for willingly participating in the newly introduced integrated system.

He shared that it was the foremost duty of a government functionary to serve the public and satisfy the citizens. Shahbaz said that delay in resolving issues leads to corruption, therefore, every agency should establish an in-house accountability system. (With additional input from APP)