ADMINISTRATIVE

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The 2014 Annual Report comes mid-way the term of the first set of Commissioners
since establishment. The Commission has come of age as reflected in the management
of affairs and implementation of mandate.
In line with its mandate, the Commission continued to tackle maladministration through
complaints handling, training of public officers and monitoring systemic investigations.
TACKLING MALADMINISTRATION IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR
The chief responsibility of the Commission is the traditional role of the Ombudsman as
known in many countries as captured under Article 59(2)(h)&(k) of the Constitution and
Section 8(a-d) of the Act which mandate the Commission to deal with maladministration in
the Public Sector. Towards this end, the Commission is empowered to receive, inquire and
investigate instances of maladministration such as unreasonable delay, administrative
injustice, discourtesy or misconduct, incompetence or ineptitude, misbehavior in public
administration, improper or prejudicial conduct, manifest injustice, abuse of power,
unlawful, oppressive, unfair treatment or unresponsive official conduct and failure to
adhere to the constitutional principles that all sovereign authority of the state is drawn
from the people. In performing this function, the Commission provides oversight across
the entire public sector, acting as a check on processes, systems and procedures.
Complaints Handling
Complaints handling remains one of the main approaches the Commission employs
to address maladministration. Under the reporting period, the Commission handled
a total of 86,905 complaints with 79,693new cases. There has been an increase in
the number of complaints in the last three years having handled 18,257 complaints in
2013 and 4,062 in 2012. The gradual increase is attributable to a number of factors:
first, there is increased awareness on the existence of the Commission, and secondly,
there is growing appreciation of the Ombudsman as an alternative avenue to getting
redress.
The prominent service issues in 2014 are unresponsive official conduct (19.91%), delay
(19.08%), unfair treatment (13.58%), abuse of power (11.54%), maladministration
(10.81 and administrative injustice (7.21). With respect to institutions, most of the
complaints were directed against the National Police Service (12.94%), Ministry of
Interior and Co-ordination of National Government (9.28%), the Judiciary (8.04%),
and Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development (7.63%). Save for differences
in the number of cases, the issues and institutions complained against have remained
the same.
THE COMMISSION ON ADMINISTRATIVE JUSTICE
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