Never before have so many complaints about the Federal Government been received as in 2023, according to the annual report of the Federal Ombudsman.
This independent public agency investigates citizens' complaints free of charge and reported a record number of cases last year. By the end of 2023, it had looked into 10,195 cases, marking the first time that the figure exceeded 10,000. Of this total, 7,383 were complaints and 2,812 information enquiries. Complaints in particular have been on the rise: in five years, the total number of such cases increased by 45%.
"Many citizens risk losing confidence in the government and the long run in democracy," said Ombudsman David Baele, who was not so much worried about the number of complaints but their reasons.
According to the report, multiple crises are to blame for this rise. The Covid-19 pandemic made complaints about unemployment benefits peak, while wars and humanitarian crises strained asylum and immigration services, leading to more complaints about this topic.
"In recent years, citizens faced many challenges and sought government support. However, some administrations struggled to deliver quality services due to high workloads and new challenges," the annual report stated.
To solve this issue and help strengthen trust, the Ombudsman proposed several priorities, including governments fulfilling their promises, making sure citizens should not bear the brunt of administrations’ hardships brought by successive crises and making sure to correct their mistakes.
Delayed response and energy support
A quarter of the complaints were about the energy subsidies introduced by the Federal Government to mitigate increased gas and electricity bills.
Complaints received by the Federal Ombudsman revealed that several people had not received the second basic package of gas and electricity even though they were entitled to it. Meanwhile, around 44% of cases were related to citizens reaching out about delays in receiving a response or decision.
Due to the Federal Ombudsman’s expanded mandate, whistleblowing cases surged in 2023. It managed 293 whistleblower cases; 62 about suspected integrity violations (fraud, nepotism, abuse,…) at federal government departments, 209 cases related to legal infringements in the private sector and 22 protection dossiers.
Overall, the Federal Ombudsman resolved 75% of the complaints.
