SA Ombudsman audit reveals 4000 of 13,000 inquiries were about State Government agencies

SOUTH Australia’s public sector watchdog has urged State Government agencies to lift their game on resolution of complaints, particularly from vulnerable people.

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SOUTH Australia’s public sector watchdog has urged State Government agencies to lift their game on resolution of complaints, particularly from vulnerable people.

SA Ombudsman Wayne Lines has found 13 major State Government departments have embraced and set up systems to handle complaints, but that more work needs to be done.

The details have been unveiled in a new audit report, An assessment of state agencies’ complaints management systems, tabled in State Parliament this month.

Mr Lines said that last financial year, 4000 of the 13,000 inquiries he received from the public were complaints about State Government agencies and local government.

“Until very recently, complaints were seen by many government agencies as an indicator of a failure to meet their service delivery standards and damaging to their reputation,” Mr Lines said.

“They are now seen in government across Australia as integral to improving service delivery and customer satisfaction.”

Mr Lines said he had identified a number of deficiencies, including inadequate record keeping and reporting practices.

“It was evident that agencies needed to improve access to their complaint management systems for individuals from known vulnerable groups and to further develop their responses to unreasonable complainant conduct,” he said.

Mr Lines has asked all of the state’s 170 government agencies to outline, by March 31 2019, evidence demonstrating how their agency-wide complaint management policies and practices have provided:

ACCESS to people from indigenous and culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

TRAINING for staff and managers dealing with frontline complaint management.

ACCESS to disadvantaged and vulnerable people.

Last financial year, the Health and Ageing Department had the most complaints about service quality, with 4167 of those surveyed, followed by Planning, Transport and Infrastructure with 787.