Public administration proposing ombudsman’s recommendations be based on facts I refer to the article titled ‘Ombudsman accuses civil service head of trying to undermine him’, published on the news portal www.timesofmalta.com (January 11). The ombudsman’s office took a full 31 days to try to justify how the scrutiny of the public administration equates to an exercise in good governance and accountability while a call for more transparency and accountability on the ombudsman’s office part amounts to a “direct frontal attack” against this institution. For clarification’s sake, the public administration has put forward proposals so that all constitutional overseeing institutions (and not only the ombudsman) should have clear, transparent, well-defined and publicly known procedures about their own standard operating policies along with the recruitment of staff (which includes consultants/persons of trust) into their fold. The office of the ombudsman not only skirted but was oblivious to these proposals and whether these ought to be included in the legal amendments his office would like to see implemented in the Ombudsman Act. Akin to the public administration, shouldn’t the...