Lesson 53

In the public interest

为了公众的利益

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  • Lesson 53
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  • In the public interest
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  • What could not be reported in the official files?
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  • The Scandinavian countries are much admired all over the world for their enlightened social policies.
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  • Sweden has evolved an excellent system for protecting the individual citizen from high-handed or incompetent public officers.
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  • The system has worked so well, that it has been adopted in other countries too.
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  • The Swedes were the first to recognize that public officials like civil servants,
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  • police officers, health inspectors or tax-collectors can make mistakes
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  • or act over-zealously in the belief that they are serving the public.
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  • As long ago as 1809,
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  • the Swedish Parliament introduced a scheme to safeguard the interest of the individual.
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  • A parliamentary committee representing all political parties appoints a person
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  • who is suitably qualified to investigate private grievances against the State.
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  • The official title of the person is 'Justiteombudsman', but the Swedes commonly refer to him as the 'J.O.' or 'Ombudsman'.
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  • The Ombudsman is not subject to political pressure.
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  • He investigates complaints large and small that come to him from all levels of society.
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  • As complaints must be made in writing, the Ombudsman receives an average of 1, 200 letters a year.
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  • He has eight lawyer assistants to help him and he examines every single letter in detail.
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  • There is nothing secretive about the Ombudsman's work,
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  • for his correspondence is open to public inspection.
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  • If a citizen's complaint is justified the Ombudsman will act on his behalf.
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  • The action he takes varies according to the nature of the complaint.
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  • He may gently reprimand an official or even suggest to parliament that a law be altered.
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  • The following case is a typical example of the Ombudsman's work.
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  • A foreigner living in a Swedish village wrote to the Ombudsman complaining that he had been ill-treated by the police,
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  • simply because he was a foreigner.
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  • The Ombudsman immediately wrote to the Chief of Police in the district asking him to send a record of the case.
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  • There was nothing in the record to show that the foreigner's complaint was justified
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  • and the Chief of Police strongly denied the accusation.
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  • It was impossible for the Ombudsman to take action,
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  • but when he received a similar complaint from another foreigner in the same village,
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  • he immediately sent one of his lawyers to investigate the matter.
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  • The lawyer ascertained that a policeman had indeed dealt roughly with foreigners on several occasions.
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  • The fact that the policeman was prejudiced against foreigners could not be recorded in the official files.
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  • It was only possible for the Ombudsman to find this out by sending one of his representatives to check the facts.
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  • The policeman in question was severely reprimanded
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  • and was informed that if any further complaints were lodged against him, he would be prosecuted.
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  • The Ombudsman's prompt action at once put an end to an unpleasant practice which might have gone unnoticed.
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