***Being youngest democratic country, by implementing the ombudsman system we can originate another addition to democratic practice in Asian countries.***

OMBUDSMAN is a term! tioiogy used indicating provision of an office by the constitution or by action of legislature of the parliament. This office is normally headed by an independent and high level public official who is responsible to the legislature or parliament. Ombudsman receives complaints from aggrieved persons against government agencies, public officials and employees. From his office Ombudsman takes action on his own motion and also is empowered to investigate, suggest recommendation for corrective action and issue report thereon. Ombudsman is a Scandinavian word meaning officer or commissioner. Available records reveal that office of Ombudsman first appeared in Sweden in 1809 in a special form and flourished there for over a century before it was copied anywhere else (UN, 1989). It was found copied within next thirty years by the rest of Scandinavian countries. Thereafter this concept disseminated to other countries. The terminology has attracted world wide attention largely as a result of the action of Danish . Ombudsman Professor Stephen Hurwitx soon after the establishment of the office of Danish Ombudsman in 1954. This action has made the office of Ombudsman popular and during 1960s several developed and newly independent developing countries adopted the institution. Guyana. Mauritius and Fiji were found to be first among developing countries to adopt this institution.

Originating from Sweden this institution rapidly disseminated to other countries as an important device to make administration accountable to legislature for its actions. Tornarities (1983) in examining the institutions of Ombudsman in the English legal system with particular attention to Cyprus noted that establishment of the office of Ombudsman outside Scandinavian countries was not without problem. The author expressed considerable doubt on transplantation of Ombudsman institution outside Scandinavian boundaries. Gwyn (1982) described re action to the establishment of an ombudsman office in Britain by stating a cloud of adverse publicity denoting 'toothless tiger . swordless crusader ”, "ombudsmouse". The conservative members of parliament described the bill as a lamentably weak version of the Scandinavian ombudsman. It was argued that since the minister was re sponsible to parliament for his department it would lx- wrong for the ombudsman to c; Ixffiind the minister's back jilVrplMlute the working of htd^fepariiiK-ntJ Rowat (J 984) Mamini-d th, suitability of ombudsman plan for the developing countries and argued that ombudsman institution is only suitable for developed democracies and added that establishment of ombudsman office was refused in Singapore when it was first proposed in 1966 on the grounds of insufficient experience with the institution in Commonwealth countries. Lack of Political will has been found an obstacle to the establishment of ombudsman institution. Gordillo (1984) In his in-

vestigation for establishment of an ombudsman for Argentina noted that left was not interest in the creation of the office of ombudsman because It fears that it will decompress public for profound change. The right was not interested either with a fear that it will Imperil the existing order. Political parties are not interested because they are uncertain as to how it will affect their political lives and fortunes.

The Constitution (1972) of Bangladesh recognised the office of ombudsman however remained without implementation till to date. Article 77 of Bangladesh Constitution provide:

(1) Parliament, may by law, provide for the establishment of the office of ombudsman.

(2) The ombudsman shall exercise such power and perform such functions as Parliament may. by law, determine, including the power to investigate any action by a ministry, public officer or a statutory public authority.

(3) The ombudsman shall prepare an annual report concerning the discharge of his functions, and such report shall be laid before Parliament.

Many international reports (UNDP. 1993: FIAS. 1992) suggested the system of ombudsman to be applied in Bangladesh. Political parties (JSD and Awami League) so far expressed clear opinion to establish the office of ombudsman. However both are partners by sharing power in the ruling government of consensus. Now people of Bangladesh are waiting to see how they react to their election commitments on this particular issue. Available literature on the system of ombudsman and ombudsman like institutions around the world suggest found to be characterised by independence, investigatory powers, accessibility, flexibility, personality, speed and Jurisdiction.

Independence from executive intervention has been identified to be the most important quality of ombudsman system. This independence was found to be guaranteed mainly in those countries where appointment of ombudsman was made through legislature (International Ombudsman Institute. 1983). The International Ombudsman Institute (IOI) differentiated ombudsman institution on the basis of their appointment by the executive or by legislature. This classification demonstrated that value of executive ombudsman is inferior to legislative ombudsman because they are not free from executive interference. Ombudsman where appointed, by legretetusf guar , antees his independence from execufWa tntasWrensig^d this'

system. Evidences are available that ombudsman system prevails with legislative and executive features. For example French ombudsman (Medlateur) as per IOI classification is a legislative executive One thing is clear that selection of ombudsman by the Parliament or executive and modality of appointment make identifiable difference to his indepen dence One Important criterion of Judging ombudsman s Inde pendence is the guarantee of

complete freedom with regard to cases which he can take up and/or refuse to initiate investigations. For example, in Sweden ombudsman legislation forbids Parliament to impose investigation on ombudsman or order him to stop once he has already taken up (Legrand. 1979). In Zambia, the president has the power both to stop an investigation and to order commissioner (ombudsman) to conduct an investigation, in Tanzania the commissioner may be ordered to conduct an investigation by the president but he has no power to stop one. In these countries question of executive or legislative ombudsman is irrelevant, perhaps the commissioner is regarded as the arm of executive rather than an independent institution.

Investigatory Power seems to be effective in the establishment of ombudsman system where an ombudsman is given untrammeled access to the required information, evidence and documents to reach a decision. The British Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration (PCA) is provided with remarkable investigatory powers under Commissioner's Statute and Parliamentary Commissioner Act. The PCA can examine both the department's file and public officials personally. He can call for information and documents from any one. including ministers and officials. To get the evidence PCA enjoys all the com pulsory powers of the High Courl including power to administer oaths, and can call upon the High Court to deal with obstruction or contempt. He is subject to official Secrets Acts and may determine his own procedure. It may be noted that an ombudsman enjoys freedom in recruiting his staff. In Denmark and Sweden oni* budsman office personnel are subject to the same rules as the Parliament personnel and ombudsman enjoys freehand in their engagement and discharge. Moreover ombudsman is found to be immune from prosecution for his actions and opinions during exercise of his powers.

Accessibility to ombudsman is another criteria to make the system effective. By and large the procedure of lodging a complaint with the ombudsman is found to be simple in most countries where ombudsman system has been implemented. , Generally the complaints con sists of simple written expose of ■ the facts Of the case which helps substantially to reinforce the ombudsman s position in the eyes of the public. To make the procedure simple it may be further enhanced by allowing complaints to be received orally or by telephone. However the methods differ between developed and developing democra cles. Both the methods have their own merits and demerits To make ombudsman institu tion allow a larger case load ar rangement could be made through multiple ombudsman (New Zealand and Sweden has 3 ombudsman) and existence ol

district offices, screening of complaints before it comes to ombudsman. In Denmark nearly 30 per cent of com-}>lalnts have been found re-ected each year and less time consuming investigations are made, complaints are found handled within certain deadline sometimes by increasing the number of staff.

Flexibility has been found to be one of the most important features of the ombudsman institution. It can be adopted to a variety of different circumstances. The case is more pronounced in the developing countries where ombudsman appears to perform a multiplicity of functions of which the traditional mission of redress of grievances and protection of individual's right may be but not necessarily the most Important one. Ombudsman in developing democracies is required to undertake a wider range of tasks than his counterpart in the developed democracies. These tasks seen to be ranging from investigation to corruption and electoral fraud to general problems of bureaucratic

organisation. Thus the ombudsman in developing democracies is fount! to undertake variety of functions and enjoys considerable amount of administrative discretion to answer to Imperatives from the society and political culture. For exam-Sile. in Zambia commissioner or investigation takes up complaints alleging corruption in government appointments, expenditure or distribution of benefits. Perhaps that corruption has been a major issue in that country and commission decided to investigate cases of that nature which affect administration but which cannot be considered to redress the grievances of citizen on the individual level.

Personality of an ombudsman is considered an important criterion because the personal qualities of individuals appointed to this office can make all the difference. He is expected to expose or suppress wrongdoing. Given the large power of administrative discretion ombudsman plays a major role in interpreting his mission and function within a nation. It

is imperative that the person appointed to the office should know the working of public bureaucracy, have deep interest in public, a patient and understanding temperament and above all a realistic concern for justice. It can be summarised that a man of Integrity, outstanding merit should be appointed as an ombudsman. In Nigeria public commissioner is to play role as an instrument used to fight social ills, widespread political and bureaucratic corruption, endemic Inefficiency and indiscipline in many public organisations.

Speed is the other relevant issue considered as to how much time should be allocated to an investigation. In the UK the commissioner did develop an investigation process found lengthier and more complex than that of any other ombudsman's. However it was found that chances of investigator's failure to reveal evidence are less in UK than in Sweden. Denmark and Nety Zealand.

Jurisdiction Is another important aspect of ombudsman system. In a survey on British

Parliament members during 1970. 72 percent gave their first responses on the restriction of commissioner's jurisdiction. The arguments forwarded for such restriction were that it would not be in general Interest to extend commissioner's Jurisdiction to transaction where relationship is of essentially commercial nature. Fdr example. buying of goods and services. commercial activities of departments should be open to examination by the commissioner while the other acts of parties are free from such investigation. It is argued that considerable expansion of government activities in contractual and commercial matters where a large part is given to administrative freedom of decision. discretionary power is imperative that they be subject to control. The Scandinavian ombudsman system allows access to government personnel. Public service personnel's complaints in Northern Ireland come within jurisdiction of two ombudsmen. One is Northern Ireland's Parliamentary Commissioner for administration and the other is the commissioner lor complaints. It is argued that all areas of government administration should be under investigation by ombudsman unless in a particular

case a compelling argument can be made for exclusion. Experiences of ombudsman institution suggest that it make inquiry Into the basis on which the administration has founded its decision. The access to every document, the inquiry and publication of official documents all have incontestable significance in the jurisdiction of ombudsman.

To summarise, the ombudsman system has been found effective to identity and report on corruption and malpractice in government management. The rationale for the establishment of ombudsman system in a de-veloping country like Bangladesh is more pronounced in a situation where corruption and malpractice has been found ranked at hateful level. We may recall that Bangladesh has established an example for developing countries by making constitutional amendment for election under caretaker government. Being a young democratic country, by implementing the ombudsman system we can originate another addition to democratic practice in Asian countries.

The author Is a financial system manager.