The office of the Commissioner of Administration Eliza Savvidou received a total of 2.634 complaints from citizens in 2016, who in her presence at a meeting of the Parliamentary Institutions Committee noted that since the beginning of the institution it sees that the administration tries to comply more with law, to open its doors to the citizen, although, as he said, there are exceptions.
"We need to acquire a culture of administration that is there to serve the citizen and not to torture him," said after the meeting the Chairman of the Institutions Committee Zacharias Zachariou. On his part, AKEL MP Aristos Damianou expressed satisfaction with the way the institution operates, speaking of the need for the services to implement the findings and suggestions of the Commissioner and clarified that efforts are being made but the problems remain.
According to what Ms. Savvidou stated before the Commission in 2016, a total of 2.634 complaints were submitted to her office. Of these, 2.268 were individual complaints, 158 were individual complaints from persons with disabilities, 84 were submitted to the equality principle and 124 to the anti-discrimination principle.
I would say, he noted that most of the complaints have to do with issues of immigration and foreigners living in Cyprus, with issues of real estate, I mean land registry, town planning, expropriations, orders. Enough, she added, are the employee complaints, which she, as she said, believes that they should not be investigated by her office, since they could be resolved by the Supreme Court with appeals.
According to her, the number of complaints against the Ministry of Health and the General Hospitals is also quite significant. There, he added, there is a huge problem with waiting lists and staff shortages, which creates problems especially for the most vulnerable groups of citizens.
Answering a question about whether he is a recipient of age discrimination complaints, he gave the example of advanced drivers, noting that an elderly driver finds it difficult to find an insurance company to insure him. In health, he added, older patients are more neglected than younger ones. At the same time he referred to individual complaints he has received about the age limits in the Police.
Over time, the problem of delays in the Land Registry increases
In relation to the Land Registry, the Commissioner of Administration pointed out that "the problem of huge delays is known", adding that "we have repeatedly submitted reports on this issue".
It has been too many years for this big problem to be resolved, he said, adding that in recent years we have seen even greater delays.
Informing the MPs in more detail on behalf of the Commissioner, Eleni Hatzittofi, stated that the suggestions made by the Land Registry to improve the situation are not of such a dimension that if implemented it will be possible to improve the situation in one or two years. He also spoke of the need for the existing procedures to be re-evaluated.
Complaints about missed calls to the public continue
At the same time, the Commissioner of Administration stated in response to questions from MPs that she continues to receive a large number of complaints about missed calls in the public sector.
However, he added, "we had made a big intervention a few years ago and even though the state machine was mobilized to solve the problem, we still receive complaints from citizens that they call for days, hours, months and no one answers."
Complaints of police violence continue, albeit reduced
Answering a question about police violence, Eliza Savvidou said that "yes, we are still receiving complaints about cases of police violence." Maybe, he added, "they are somewhat reduced", noting that "but we get more complaints about the behavior of the police towards the citizens either during the traffic control or during the conduct of investigations, etc.
"On this issue we have repeatedly submitted to the Chief of Police suggestions, reports and proposals on how to deal with this issue," she said, adding that her office is at the disposal of the Police for training on issues related to respect for human rights. non-discrimination and non-racism.
At the same time, he informed the MPs that, tomorrow, Thursday, he will have a meeting with the Chief of Police, Zacharias Chrysostomou, on his own initiative, to discuss how there will be best result. But, he added, "unfortunately yes, there is still violence in the Police".
The administration is trying to open its doors to the citizen
On the issue of compliance, Ms. Savvidou said, "the results we have are not bad." He may take time to convince a service that we are right or that it needs to resolve some systemic problems, as it does at some point, he added. To an additional question whether the institution has contributed to the improvement of the citizen-state relationship since 1991 until today, he answered that "for many cases and for many issues we have had very positive developments".
According to the Commissioner of Administration, we see that the administration tries more to respect the general principles of administrative law, that is, it tries more to justify decisions, it tries more to open its doors to the citizen, to become more accessible, although there are exceptions. In terms of transparency, he added, we are also seeing improvement.
Chairman of the Institutions Committee: A state that serves the citizen, not tortures him
In his statements after the meeting of the Committee, the Chairman of the Institutions Committee, Zacharias Zachariou, stated, among other things, that "in the general discussion held today, it is shown that the institution of the Commissioner of Administration has made a positive contribution to significantly improving the state ».
Certainly, he added, "and everyone knows that there is still a lot of work to be done." It is a very difficult task, he said.
"As an Institutions Committee, we believe that although positive steps have been taken, much more needs to be done," he said, adding that "a culture of administration is needed to be there to serve the citizen and not to torture him." And unfortunately, he added, "today, there are examples that really torment him." "When a citizen struggles with a phone in hand to communicate with a part of the state, it is certainly not providing services to the citizen."
Regarding the state of the Commissioner's reports, Mr. Zachariou stated that "in the first years of the institution's implementation, the state had essentially clung to itself and was trying to justify everything. "Over time and gradually there is a full cooperation of the state with the Commissioner of Administration and things have improved to a pretty good degree".
For his part, in his statements after the session, AKEL MP Aristos Damianou expressed satisfaction for the efficient and orderly operation of the institution of the Commissioner of Administration and for the service he offers to the administration and the protection of citizens' rights, stating that to follow other services and institutions the exemplary way in which it operates.
After stating that during the briefing, the need was emphasized by the various services to implement the findings and suggestions contained in the Commissioner's reports and clarified that efforts are being made but the problems remain.
Mr. Damianou stated that the Commissioner notices the occurrence of age racism at the expense of older people and added that violations of rights continue to be observed in the Police, said that the main problem is the fact that the services refuse to respond to citizens, and that despite efforts in the field of health the problem seems to be intractable.
Source: KYPE