Editorial: Ombudsman stirs up the bureaucracy

It was a phrase that no journalist could resist. There, appended to a media log, was a note that bureaucrats had agreed to "lie in unison". The article to which it was attached was a Heraldstory in which erstwhile Immigration Minister Lianne Dalziel acknowledged Ahmed Zaoui's detention while an official - Ian Smith, the author of the log note - was still denying all knowledge of the arrest. It was a classic case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand was doing, the result of which was egg on Mr Smith's face. The note suggested he was not happy that he alone had kept up a pretence that had been agreed to within the Immigration Service.

Did members of the service collude to delude over the initial phase of the Zaoui case? We will probably never know the answer because the report of the Ombudsman into the service's failure to disclose to him the contents of the media log makes no serious investigation into that claim. Instead, the Ombudsman is more concerned with the processes of disclosure and the attitude of a state agency to his office's inquiries. That is to be expected and, while it would have been instructive to find out whether lying in unison was in the service's operating manual, it is no bad thing that the Ombudsman's office takes a broader view of the issue.

The inquiry has been worthwhile on several fronts. It has shown minor officials the folly of using email with no more discretion than they might display around the water cooler. Mr Smith fell into the trap of treating the electronic medium as something other than what it is - a form of written communication that can come back to haunt you. The second lesson to officials is that it does not pay to be economical with the truth when faced with a request under the Official Information Act.

Mr Smith's denial of the existence of the log was found by the inquiry to be short of the truth and he has faced the embarrassment of having his responses to questions set out in the Ombudsman's report from which the public can draw their own conclusions on the adequacy of his answers. The Ombudsman went so far as to describe the evidence of Mr Smith and that of an unidentified adviser as "unreliable" which is, in the polite parlance of his office, a strong word indeed.

There are also strong words for the Immigration Service on the level of senior oversight it has exercised and its internal processes. These findings echo the conclusions already drawn by the service's own parent body, the Department of Labour.

However, the most significant message to come out of the Ombudsman's inquiry is one that needs to be heeded by all the agencies of state subject to oversight by his office and to public scrutiny under the Official Information Act. A paragraph early in the report is instructive. It states: "If an Ombudsman cannot rely upon a full and complete response from a holder of official information, the purposes of the Official Information Act are likely to be frustrated. This will occur by defeating Parliament's intent that requesters shall have an effective right of review of any refusal of a request by recourse to an Ombudsman ... " It was preceded by a reference to the constitutional significance of the Official Information Act and the process it provided to contribute to public accountability by Government organisations and public officials.

The inquiry has fired a broadside across the bow of every official and politician. It has told them that they will be subject to constitutional checks and balances whether they like it or not and that the Ombudsman's office has the clout to make it happen. Ombudsman Mel Smith notes in his conclusions that it would be "highly unfortunate if the climate of compliance with the Official Information Act deteriorated to the point where it became normal practice for the full powers of the Ombudsman under the Ombudsmen Act to be exercised". So it would, but it is comforting to know that the Ombudsman is ready to use them if required. He has already flexed his muscles.


Herald Feature: Ahmed Zaoui, parliamentarian in prison

Related information and links