Ombudsman presents annual report to President Ramkalawan and National Assembly Speaker   |01 April 2023

Mrs Tirant-Ghérardi presents a copy of the report to President Ramkalawan (photo left) and Speaker Mancienne

The current Ombudsman of Seychelles, Nichole Tirant-Gherardi, presented her office’s annual report of 2022 to President Wavel Ramkalawan yesterday morning at State House.

Speaking to the media soon after, she shared that during her meeting with the president, she discussed last year’s statistics, such as the number of cases that was brought to her office.

“What is remarkable is that we are noticing a rise in the number of complaints that reaches the office,” she said.

Since her appointment in 2017, to date, there has been a continuous rise in complaints except for the year 2021, whereby it decreased. However, the number rose again the following year.

She expressed how she feels that many people are still confused about the work of the Ombudsman, which causes them to bring in complaints that are not relevant or related to its work. However, she has noticed an improvement.

“What I feel is a more important point is the fact that many cases brought to us were kept and are being dealt with instead of being passed on to other departments, that has nothing to do with us,” she said.

The Ombudsman reported they have received a total of 173 complaints last year and they kept 30 cases which fell under their jurisdiction. Their major challenges remain lack of human resources and how to address the public’s scanty knowledge about the office.

Meanwhile on Thursday, Mrs Tirant-Ghérardi called on the Speaker of the National Assembly, Hon. Roger Mancienne, where she presented a copy of the report to him in accordance with Article 143(5) of the constitution.

According to a press release from the National Assembly, the Ombudsman conveyed that this report includes details on the exercise of the Ombudsman’s functions in 2022, as well as recommendations from the Ombudsman’s Office.

Discussions during the meeting were focused on the activities of last year in relation to matters concerning cooperation and good governance.

Mrs Tirant-Ghérardi stressed the importance of more opportunities in the future for direct engagement between the Ombudsman’s Office and various ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) to ensure effective communication and improved education on the role of the Ombudsman.

Hon. Mancienne thanked Mrs Tirant-Ghérardi for the insightful report and tremendous work undertaken in ensuring informative, transparent and proficient reports are available and looks forward to future reports from the Ombudsman’s Office.

Diane Larame/Compilation of press release from the National Assembly