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Presentation of Special Report to the Knesset (Israeli parliament)
On 26.11.2024, the State Comptroller and Ombudsman of Israel Matanyahu Englman presented to the Israeli parliament (Knesset) a special report on the subject of public service provided by public bodies in Israel.
The special report is based on the findings of a groundbreaking survey conducted by the Office of the Ombudsman vis-a-vis the service provided by eight central public bodies, as well as an analysis of 34,259 complaints about public service received by the Office from 2019 to 2024; these complaints comprise 31.6% of the total number of complaints received by the Office of the Ombudsman in the same period. 57.9% of the complaints about public service were found justified or were rectified, a percentage that is significantly higher than the percentage of all the complaints that were found justified or were rectified (43.8%) during the same period.
The services measured for the purposes of the special report were those provided by the reception centers, call centers and websites of the eight selected bodies.
The report also establishes some 100 benchmarks for the appropriate provision of services, which serve as guidelines for the delivery of optimal service for the service user - the 'client'. The benchmarks are listed in the report in a simple and accessible manner, according to subject matter.
In the words of Ombudsman Englman:
"The citizens of Israel pay high taxes to finance the public sector. It is incumbent upon public servants to provide optimal, efficient and cordial service for every person. For the first time, our office is publishing a report on public service with scores for the different service indices of the central public bodies… The duty to provide good service is even more poignant during the [emergency situation], with hundreds of thousands of citizens living under continual threat and in need of the help of governmental agencies".
According to Dr. Esther Ben-Haim, Head of the Office of the Ombudsman, " we believe that the public service user receives the service by merit, not grace, and that the service provider must as far as possible tailor the manner of providing the service to the needs of the service user, and make receiving the service easier".
An English version of the special report highlights can be found in the download section below.
Source: The Office of the State Comptroller and Ombudsman of Israel
