Citizens' shield against maladministration : a study of the Maltese parliamentary office of the Ombudsman, 1995-2005

Abstract

This study examines the establishment, development and performance of the Maltese Parliamentary Office of the Ombudsman, and its role in the governance of the Maltese islands. To do so, the following three questions are addressed sequentially: a) what purpose does the Office serve in the scheme of government; b) how did it originate, evolve and perform; and, most significantly, c) what insights and patterns can be discerned of Maltese administrative politics, the structure and modus operandi of the public administration, and the process of public policy-making, through the Office's activity and the minutiae disclosed by its investigations? Answers to the above reveal how the Office's experiences and dealings have been both inspiring, from an institutional point of view, and particular. Its purpose makes sure that citizens are offered a flexible but robust shield against administrative shortcomings from a public administration that is unfairly and excessively perceived as being incompetent and insensitive. Its origins were seeded in an exceptional atmosphere of political and partisan consensus, which later bore fruit in the Office's numerous achievements. The Ombudsman's activity reveals insights into the Maltese public realm which are hardly ever given attention in the local scholarly literature, and much more in the country's socio-political and development agenda. The review draws upon a relatively wide range of documentary evidence, yet its conclusions testify the study area's complexities and the corresponding call for further, in depth, academic research. Though the Office's performance and effects on Maltese society are discernable and pervasive, there are no simple equations behind what continues to constitute the 'Citizens' shield against maladministration'.