The Public Complaints Office in the Ministry of Public Security reports to the Ministry's Office of the Internal Auditor and is an executive branch responsible to the Minister of Public Security, enabling the Minister to handle citizens' complaints concerning the Ministry, the IP and the IPS. The decision to create the Ombudsman's Office was made in 1993 by the Minister in collaboration with the Director-General and Internal Auditor of the Ministry.

The link between internal auditing and public complaints

The experience that has been accumulated in the processing of public complaints points to the tight link between internal auditing and complaints received from the public. Some complaints, by their very nature, became subjects for dedicated internal auditing and led to the formulation of organizational recommendations whose implementation has prevented additional complaints from the public concerning that issue. The reference here is mainly to complaints on a general matter of principle or to an abundance of complaints on a specific issue.

The information provided through complaints from the public and through the findings generated by clarifications is a source for the identification of systemic flaws and for the drawing of conclusions aimed at improving the performance of the various agencies for which the Ministry is responsible. Thus, complaints from the public are an effective tool for internal auditing and monitoring.

Complaints are also submitted from various sources, including public figures to which the Minister is accountable by law and/or in accordance with the rules of proper public administration.

Examples of complaints whose processing led to changes in procedures, directives and work methods are presented below.

The uniqueness of the work of the Ombudsman's Office: Direct examination

The procedure of the Ombudsman's Office, formulated since the office's creation and after experimentation with several alternatives, is the direct examination technique. Direct examination is carried out when complaints from the public focus on a matter of principle or when they indicate a deviant or unique phenomenon, when the answers received from the field in response to the phenomenon are unsatisfactory, or when the problem is especially grave.

The basic principle behind the direct examination technique, is direct and unmediated contact between the members of the internal auditing unit and those involved in the complaint. This contact enables the internal auditing unit to obtain first-hand impressions of the extent of the complaint's gravity and sensitive nature. The character of the complaint will determine the manner for dealing with it.

When the complaint is of a routine nature, its examination is conducted through obtaining of replies in writing from all the persons involved and in accordance with the directives of the law and of the Police and Prison Service orders.
To study the complaint, the internal auditing unit sometimes requests investigation files, personnel files, or any other material that it considers relevant and crucial for a thorough investigation of the complaint. In addition, the unit sometimes conducts conversations with, and interrogations of, those individuals involved in the complaints, in order to thoroughly clarify the complaint.