In the Public Interest
In the Public Interest
The
Scandinavian countries are much admired all over the world for their
enlightened social policies. Sweden has evolved an excellent system for
protecting the individual citizen from highhanded or incompetent public
officers. The system has worked so well, that it has been adopted in other
countries too.
The
Swedes were the first to recognize that public official like civil servants,
police officers, health inspectors, or tax-collectors can make mistakes or act
over-zealously in the belief that they are serving the public. As long ago as
1809, the Swedish Parliament introduced a scheme to safeguard the interest of
the individual. A parliamentary committee representing all political parties
appoints a person who is suitably qualified to investigate private grievances
against the State. The official title of the person is 'Justice Ombudsman', but
the Swedes commonly refer to him as the 'J.O.' or 'Ombudsman'. The Ombudsman is
not subject to political pressure. He investigates complaints large and small
that come to him from all levels of society. As complaints must be made in
writing, the Ombudsman receives an average of 1,200 letters a year. He has
eight lawyer assistants to help him and examines every single letter in detail.
There is nothing secretive about the Ombudsman's work for his correspondence is
open to public inspection. If a citizen's complaint is justified, the Ombudsman
will act on his behalf. The action he takes varies according to the nature of
the complaint. He may gently reprimand an official or even suggest to parliament
that a law the altered. The following case is a typical example of the
Ombudsman's work.
A
foreigner living in a Swedish village wrote to the Ombudsman complaining that
he had been ill-treated by the police, simply because he was a foreigner. The Ombudsman
immediately wrote to the Chief of Police in the district asking him to send a
record of the case. There was nothing in the record to show that the
foreigner's complaint was justified and the Chief of Police strongly denied the
accusation. It was impossible for the Ombudsman to take action, but when he
received a similar complaint from another foreigner in the same village, he
immediately sent one of his layers to investigate the matter. The lawyer
ascertained that a policeman had indeed dealt roughly with foreigners on
several occasions. The fact that the policeman was prejudiced against
foreigners could not be recorded in the official files. It was only possible
for the Ombudsman to find this out by sending one of his representatives to
check the facts. The policeman in question was severely reprimanded and was
informed that if any further complaints were lodged against him, he would be prosecuted. The Ombudsman's prompt action at once put an end to an unpleasant
practice which might have gone unnoticed.
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