Tonga can finally say it has an Ombudsman after years of legislative preparation.
In 2014 former Justice Minister and Attorney-General, 'Aisea Taumoepeau, was appointed Commissioner for Public Relations to oversee good governance.
Last December legislative changes were made to transform Mr Taumoepeau into the country's first Ombudsman.
Under the laws his office, which was officially launched this month, can investigate government administration, either initiated by public complaint or by his own volition.
He told Koro Vaka'uta about the changes.
Tonga's Ombudsman 'Aisea Taumoepeau
Photo: Ombudsman office
Transcript
'AISEA TAUMOEPEAU: The law was amended and there was a few things changed. One of those changes was the change of the name, putting it on equal par as the other international offices who do ombudsman work. It is not just the change of name, there are also bigger changes. For instance, there is a change of the authority that appoints the ombudsman. Before it was the cabinet. Initially it was the Privy Council. That was changed back in 2010 when the new political reform was put into place and the authority was given to cabinet. But last year it changed altogether to the Legislative Assembly and the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly. This is a big change as far as we are concerned because it means we are more independent. Our operation is more independent of people who may want to interfere with the job that we do because we are actually investigating public officers, including ministers.
KORO VAKA'UTA: You've got the name change and the appointment change, how about the work that you do? How has that changed?
AT: We continue with the work that we do which is the classical ombudsman work. I think New Zealand was one of the first outside countries, outside of Scandinavia, to adopt the ombudsman concept back in 1962 I believe. We had based our law on that New Zealand Ombudsman Act. Now New Zealand and other countries have expanded their scope of work. In New Zealand it includes the Freedom of Information area and other additional functions. With us here, our basic function still remains within the classical function of the ombudsman. There are proposals for additional things in the future but we will wait for that to happen.
KV: And with the official launch of the office, I understand this month your office, via the Speaker, also launched a new portal, a website for the office. Will that help the public connect with you a bit more?
AT: Yes, that is a big thing for us. We are getting into that kind of thing now. Launching the website, it gives information to people. Our operation in the past has been a very private operation. We deal with people and we were not allowed by law, to divulge the information to anyone but now we are freed up on that. Doing that, I am sure it will help the operation. One of the reasons why decided to put up the website, it not only gives information of what we do and who we are et cetera, but we can also, in the future, publicise specific matters or work that we might see to be beneficial to the public.
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