The Government of Malawi is keen to improve public
service delivery in all its institutions with the ultimate
objective of fostering development of the country. At
the centre of safeguarding public service delivery,
is the Office of the Ombudsman (OoO). The office is
mandated to ensure that all public institutions work
effectively, efficiently and adhere to the democratic
principles of openness, fairness, responsiveness and
accountability. Administratively, performance contract
programme puts the office as a last resort of public
complaints resolutions. The last strategic plan was a very crucial tool towards
these envisaged roles. However, due to many other factors, not all that was
planned was achieved during the period of the plan.
The majority of complaints received and investigated continued to be labour
related. This resulted in cementing a misconception of the office as being a labour
complaint handling institution and its underutilisation. In the next five years, the
office will strive to provide high quality and timely service to members of the
public. We intend to fully utilise our unique legal mandate which encompasses
monitoring of public service delivery alongside the public sector reform agenda.
The main focus will be to reposition the OoO and make it more relevant to the
present needs of the public.