The latest Ombudsman report criticized the government hotline 1823 as inefficient despite its pledge to provide timely services.

The Integrated Call Centre (ICC), set up in 2001 and managed by the Efficiency Unit (EU), aims at providing a 24-hour platform for members of the public to direct their inquiries, complaints, and suggestions related to government departments.

It is the second investigation conducted by the Ombudsman into the ICC, following a series of complaints about its service.

Seventy percent of the complaints concerned its handling of complaints.

The Ombudsman noted that manpower shortage has been a major problem at the ICC, and it is expected to reach full capacity within this year.

It added the ICC is over-ambitious in trying to be a repository for complaints directed to various government departments.

The ICC receives an average of 231,197 calls every month. One-tenth of them are complaints.

"The ICC only covers 20 of the 58 government departments and agencies. Its service is limited," senior investigation officer of the Ombudsman Cynthia Wong Lok-yee said.

The investigation also showed that the ICC or even the EU lack the authority or expertise to handle substantive issues or command departments to take action.

Upon receiving a complaint, the ICC would refer it to the responsible department. The department may refuse to take up the matter, in which case, the ICC would have to reassign it to some other department that would take the responsibility.

"Such process could take a long time," the Ombudsman Alice Tai Yuen-ying said.

Among the over 100 complaints examined, the ICC spent over nine months to process one which involved four loose bolts on a road sign.

The ICC spent the first 18 days on referring the complaint three times to the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department, which told the ICC to contact Highways Department (HyD) instead.

In the 32 days that followed, the case was referred to the HyD and Water Supplies Department (WSD) as the former alleged that the latter was involved in the project.

Yet the WSD did not take up the case until 90 days later.

The problem was fixed in the end, 279 days after the complaint was first lodged.

"We consider the ICC to be well placed to be a truly efficient one-stop call center to cover all government departments," Tai said. "But the handling of more complex issues leaves much to be desired."

The Ombudsman suggested the ICC organize an interdepartmental discussion immediately after it fails to demarcate responsibility.

Departments are encouraged to reply directly to the complainants to avoid any delay.

Head of the EU pledged to carry out all that the Ombudsman has recommended the ICC to do.

In a separate development, the Ombudsman considered two complaints against the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority (HKEAA) unsubstantiated but the HKEAA is accused of maladministration nonetheless.

Almost 100 students complained about the HKEAA for adjusting a marking scheme to cater for different approaches adopted by candidates in answering a question in the Use of English paper which led to unfair evaluation.

The ICC noted that the HKEAA should bear responsibility for failing to provide accurate and appropriate guidelines.

The HKEAA stressed this was an isolated case and denied that it was a result of maladministration.

(HK Edition 06/27/2008 page1)