What we have here is a failure to communicate: Ombudsman slams Architects Board
The Ombudsman says he was close to raiding the body responsible for keeping the state’s architects honest.
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THE body responsible for overseeing the state’s architects demonstrated “extremely poor administrative practice”, a lack of respect and acted unreasonably in response to an investigation, the Ombudsman has found.
Tasmanian Ombudsman Richard Connock has issued an excoriating report into the Board after attempting to investigate a complaint against it.
He says the response was so poor that he was nearly forced to use his powers to raid their office in search of answers for the first time ever.
The Board of Architects of Tasmania is a statutory authority established to administer the Architects Act and can investigate complaints and discipline architects if they have acted unprofessionally or breached the Act.
The Ombudsman investigated a complaint from a member of the public that the Board had not responded to concerns he had raised about the conduct of an architect for three months.
In January, the Ombudsman tried to contact the board by phone and email and issued a notice of entry when he did not get a response.
Although he eventually received a response, “issues of delay and poor communication were ongoing”.
The Board blamed problems with in part on a new email server — although the Ombudsman noted he was also unsuccessful in reaching the board by telephone or mail.
In his written findings, Mr Connock said the board did not follow its own procedures by dealing with the initial complaint and the compliant had to follow up continually for a year.
“It is important to note that it is practically unheard of for a complaint about such a minor issue to proceed to an investigation and I have never before had to issue a notice of entry to premises in relation to any matter,” the report noted.
“The Board’s communication in relation to complaints is very poor and it is very difficult for either my office or a complainant to elicit any response from it by phone, email or letter.”
“The Board appears to be ignorant of or unwilling to fulfil its responsibility to assist my office with inquiries and investigations in accordance with the Ombudsman Act.”
He recommended the board apologise to the complainant for the delays and poor communication and make improvements to its complaint handling procedures.
The report noted that despite being provided a copy of the findings, the board had not committed to implementing any of the recommendations beyond creating a new email address.
Legislation to updated the Architects Act is before state parliament.
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