Re: Your complaint

[Simon H WANG]

Dear Sir/Madam 

             Thanks for your reply.  I have the following questions and/or requests regarding my complaint. Whenever applicable, please process my request of information under the Code on Access to Information.  

1) The function of The Ombudsman is to investigate complaints of maladministration by the Government departments and public organisations listed in Schedule 1 to The Ombudsman Ordinance.  Could you explain why your office has investigated Education Bureau’s Mechanisms for Approving Applications for School Fee Revision by Direct Subsidy Scheme/Private Schools and Collection of Other Charges by Private Schools (https://ofomb.ombudsman.hk/abc/en-us/direct_investigations) although Education Bureau is not listed in Schedule 1 to The Ombudsman Ordinance https://www.elegislation.gov.hk/hk/cap397@2019-12-02T00:00:00   

2) Given that most bureaux and Chief Executive's Office are not listed in the Schedule 1 to the The Ombudsman Ordinance, how can the officers in these bureaux and offices be held accountable in case of maladministration?   

3) We understand your dissatisfaction.  However, your complaint revolved around the policy and orders with regard to the Government’s strategy against the development of COVID-19.  Those are not administrative matters subject to The Ombudsman’s investigation.  Regrettably we are unable to take up your complaint. I am not complaining against the government's overall strategy for fighting Covid-19 but its failure to update its policy regarding Hubei residents to keep in pace with the latest development (i.e. no recent case of infection was reported in Hubei). This failure, I believe, is a case of maladministration.  Please kindly refer this case to a more senior official for review (https://www.ombudsman.hk/en-us/handing_of_complaints/request_for_review.html) 

4) Please disclose the names of the officer who made the decision to dismiss my complaint and the officer who would review the case under the Code on Access to Information.  

5) For your information, section 10(1) of TheOmbudsman Ordinance precludes this Office from investigating a complaint if the complainant is untraceable.  An email address is not sufficient to trace the whereabouts of the sender.  If you lodge other complaints with us in future, please, therefore, provide your postal address.  For easy contact, please also provide your telephone number.

I have communicated with various government bureaux and departments in the past.  Your office is the only one that asks me for a postal address. In fact, your office staff had sent me letters by post in the past to my Baptist University address presumably by visiting the web address in my signature to find the contact information. It is regrettable that officers dealing with this case were not able to find the information they need like their colleagues did with previous cases.  Apparently your office needs a better customer management system to recognize individuals like me who filed complaints before.  I hope this is not an excuse to be used for delaying the handling of this particular case.  

FYI 

I can be reached through the following postal address and telephone number 

OEE1203, 12/F, Oen Hall Building (East Wing), Ho Sin Hang Campus,
Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Phone: 34117044 

Yours sincerely 

Simon Wang 

On Mon, Jul 20, 2020 at 1:11 PM <compl...@ombudsman.hk> wrote:

Private and Confidential

本函檔號 Our Ref.： (5) in OMB2020/2202        傳真 Fax：2882 8149
主旨Subject        ： Your complaint        電話 Tel.：2629 0417
                日期 Date：20.7.2020


To :＜simo...@hkbu.edu.hk＞


Dear Mr Wang,

Your Complaint

        We refer to your email of 2 July 2020.  In your email, you referred us to a letter written by your former student to the editor of a local newspaper.  You considered that the difficulty now faced by your former student as stated in the letter was caused by the ban on the entry of Hubei residents.  You sought our intervention.  On 13 July, you emailed us and asked about the progress of your case.

2.        The function of The Ombudsman is to investigate complaints of maladministration by the Government departments and public organisations listed in Schedule 1 to The Ombudsman Ordinance.  

3.        We understand your dissatisfaction.  However, your complaint revolved around the policy and orders with regard to the Government’s strategy against the development of COVID-19.  Those are not administrative matters subject to The Ombudsman’s investigation.  Regrettably we are unable to take up your complaint.  You may wish to express your opinion with Food and Health Bureau direct.  Its contact details are as follows:

Address        :                        18/F, East Wing, Central Government Offices,
                                2 Tim Mei Avenue, Tamar, Hong Kong
Telephone                :                3509 8765
Fax                                :        2541 3352
Email Address        :                enq...@fhb.gov.hk

4.        For your information, section 10(1) of The Ombudsman Ordinance precludes this Office from investigating a complaint if the complainant is untraceable.  An email address is not sufficient to trace the whereabouts of the sender.  If you lodge other complaints with us in future, please, therefore, provide your postal address.  For easy contact, please also provide your telephone number.

5.        Thank you for writing to us.



Yours sincerely,



( Winnie Fung )
for The Ombudsman

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