The Office of The Ombudsman is an independent statutory authority, established in 1989 under the Ombudsman Ordinance, to redress grievances arising from maladministration in the public sector through independent and impartial investigations to improve the standard of public administrations.

Since December 2001, the Office severed its linkage with the Administration and became a corporation sole. It has set up its administrative systems and recruits contract staff on its own remuneration packages.

Directly responsible to the Chief Executive, The Ombudsman serves as the community's monitor on government departments and public bodies specified in the schedule to the ordinance to ensure that:

Two exceptions to the monitoring system are the Hong Kong Police Force and the Independent Commission Against Corruption, both of which have their own separate bodies for dealing with public complaints.

The 17 major public organisations in the schedule are: the Airport Authority, Employees Retraining Board, Equal Opportunities Commission, Hong Kong Arts Development Council, Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority, Hong Kong Housing Authority, Hong Kong Housing Society, Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Hong Kong Sports Institute Limited, Hospital Authority, Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation, Legislative Council Secretariat, Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority, Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, Securities and Futures Commission, Urban Renewal Authority and Vocational Training Council.

Apart from investigating complaints, The Ombudsman may initiate direct investigations of her own volition into matters of public interest and widespread concern, and publish the reports. This proactive and preventive approach aims at addressing problems affecting a broad spectrum of the community. The direct investigations are particularly useful in redressing administrative flaws of a systemic nature and addressing fundamental problems or underlying causes for complaint.

Since 1994, when The Ombudsman was empowered to undertake direct investigations, 51 such investigations have been completed — six of them in 2004. These six concerned:

The reports of all direct investigations have been published and are available for public scrutiny at the Office's Resource Centre.

The Ombudsman Ordinance also empowers The Ombudsman to investigate complaints of non-compliance with the Code on Access to Information against government departments, including the Hong Kong Police Force and the Independent Commission Against Corruption. The Ombudsman is also empowered to act as an independent review body in respect of an alleged breach of the code.

The Office received 12 115 enquiries and 4 822 complaints in 2004, compared with 12 320 enquiries and 4 352 complaints in 2003. The areas attracting substantial numbers of complaints were related to error, wrong advice or decision, failure to follow procedures or delay, negligence or omission, disparity in treatment, lack of response to complaints, staff attitude and ineffective control. Some of the departments or organisations receiving the most complaints were: Housing Department, Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, Lands department and Transport Department. The very nature of their services has a closer impact on the community and they have more direct, frequent and extensive contact with members of the public.

Although The Ombudsman has no authority to enforce her recommendations, over 95 per cent of the recommendations made have been accepted by the organisations concerned.