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Presentation of the 2021 Annual Report to the Speaker of the Knesset on "National Ombudsday"
On 21.6.2022, the State Comptroller and Ombudsman, Mr. Matanyahu Englman, presented to the Speaker of the Knesset (Israeli parliament) Annual Report 48 for the year 2021.
In 2021, the Office received 19,701 letters of complaint. This constitutes an 11% increase in the number of letters of complaint received by the Office, as compared with 2020 in which 17,719 letters of complaint were received. 43% of the complaints that the Office was authorized to handle in 2021 were found justified or their matter was rectified without the need for the Office to reach a decision pertaining to them.
The report contains a special chapter on the digitalization of public services, turning a spotlight on the process of digitalization in public bodies and highlighting the importance of developing digital services, while providing alternatives for populations with low digital orientation.
This year, once again, we collaborated with the Central Bureau of Statistics in order to obtain an in-depth analysis of the characteristics of the complainants turning to the Office. In this context, we added to the report interesting data under the logo "2021 in numbers" and we examined in depth leading public bodies.
The day on which the annual report was presented to the Knesset was "National Ombudsday", which was inaugurated two years ago by the Speaker of the Knesset.
To mark "National Ombudsday" this year, the Knesset's Special Committee for Public Petitions held a meeting to become acquainted with the work of ombudspersons and commissioners responsible for public enquiries in public bodies. This was followed by a discussion in the committee, in the presence of the Speaker of the Knesset and the Ombudsman, during which the Head of the Office, Dr. Esther Ben-Haim, presented the main points of the report.
To conclude this important day, a discussion was held in the plenum of the Knesset on the topic of "National Ombudsday".
Together with the annual report, the Office issued a pamphlet - in Hebrew, Arabic and English - containing a summary of the activity of the Office in 2021. Furthermore, in order to make it easier for the public to access the findings of the report, a brief video was produced and newsletters in Hebrew and Arabic were sent out to the Office's electronic mailing list, which includes many relevant target groups.
Attached is the summary pamphlet in English.
Source: Office of the State Comptroller and Ombudsman of Israel
