Africa-Press – Angola. In about eight months, the Provincial Services of the Ombudsman’s Office, in Benguela, have already assisted 114 citizens from the most diverse segments of society, in search of a solution to safeguard their rights.
The head of the provincial representation of the Ombudsman’s Office in Benguela, Gaspar Correia Miguel, said that the 114 hearings were granted to citizens who were on the verge of seeing their rights violated.
Gaspar Correia Miguel made it known that, since the opening of the Provincial Services of the Ombudsman’s Office, on the 28th of July last year, there have already been 29 complaints filed by citizens, of which six have been resolved and 13 are pending.
But, at the same time, he said that the Ombudsman also closed 36 cases, 27 in 2022 and nine in January of this year.
In general, he referred that the cases dealt with have to do with the delay in the procedural process, either at the Criminal Investigation Service (SIC) or at the Attorney General’s Office, including questions about the Amnesty Law and non-payment to Social Security by private companies
However, the person in charge admits that the influx of citizens to the facilities is still not satisfactory, which is why more publicity is needed to publicize the existence of services among users.
For the lawyer, in terms of cases that need legal guidance, the services of the Ombudsman’s Office in Benguela serve, on average, seven to ten citizens/month, when there is capacity to receive more than twenty users.
According to him, although the number of personnel is negligible, the institution is prepared to respond to requests from citizens who daily seek services to resolve their cases.
Gaspar Correia Miguel says that visits to municipalities in the interior of Benguela province will continue, as part of the strategy to increasingly publicize services, so that they are not just confined to the urban center on the coast.
He appealed to citizens who see their rights violated in hospital units, civil registration posts, police units, to go to the Ombudsman’s service to safeguard their situation.
On the other hand, he made it known that the Ombudsman is studying the possibility of installing focal points in some municipalities, where the demand of users justifies it, to speed up the resolution of cases.
“The focal points are the people who will receive the complaints in the municipalities, which the Provincial Services will collect to give the due treatment”, he stressed.
As for the difficulties, he pointed out the delay of some public entities in responding in a timely manner to requests from the Ombudsman, for courtesy meetings, because the ombudsman has institutional cooperation as a strong point.
Likewise, he announced the holding, in the next few days, of lectures in schools to publicize the role of the ombudsman in defending and guaranteeing the fundamental rights and freedoms of citizens.
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