National Ombudsman will again listen to complaints March 10-11

As announced earlier, the National Ombudsman will be visiting Saba and St. Eustatius from March 9 until March 12. Past visits have been well received by the population and were deemed very successful by the National Ombudsman team. This writes The Daily Herald.

On Statia, the number of complaints lodged last year totalled 44. The local government and the Health Insurance Office (ZVK) were each on the receiving end of about a quarter of the grievances.

Saba lodged 22 complaints last year. Four of the complaints took issue with Immigration and Naturalisation, eight issues with ZVK and one with the police.

Since 1982, the role of the ombudsman is to protect the people against violation of rights, abuse of powers, error, negligence, unfair decisions and maladministration. Its role is that of impartial arbiter, but it can also initiate an investigation if it so chooses. Similar organisations represent the people in 80 other nations. The National ombudsman also aims to improve public administration whilst making the government’s actions more open and its administration more accountable to the public.

The ombudsman investigates complaints from the public free of charge.

Consultation hours in Saba will be: walk-in appointments will be held on Tuesday, March 10, between 4:00pm and 7:00pm at Saba Roads and Construction Company building in The Bottom, and on Wednesday, March 11 between 4:00pm and 7:00pm at RS Accounting (near RBC bank) in Windwardside.

To schedule an appointment between March 9–12 outside the consultation hours, please call 416-5080 or send an email to:

j.stam@nationaleombudsman.nl or g.vonmaltzahn@ nationaleombudsman.nl.

See www.nationaleombudsman.nl/bes for more information.