Career Saved Online

Balochistan, the largest Pakistan province, has a widely scattered population. Security challenges and unemployment threaten the region’s overall prosperity.

Bridging the gap between the people and public service providers is the need of the hour. It is being achieved by strengthening citizens’ voices on good governance and collaborating with provincial public institutions to develop an effective grievance redressal system.

Working under USAID-funded Citizens’ Voice Project’s Transparency and Accountability theme, Development Resource Solutions (DRS) has developed the first official website for the provincial ombudsman, Balochistan, having an online complaint redressal mechanism.

“We are grateful to USAID Citizens’ Voice Project and DRS for addressing public service delivery in Balochistan. We are certain that with a little more awareness among the masses, our online Complaint Redressal Mechanism (CRM) will help the public in having their complaints addressed,” says Abdul Manaan, Deputy Director Provincial Ombudsman Balochistan (POB).

Under the e-complaints section on the official website of the provincial Ombudsman, located at www.ombudsmanbalochistan.gov.pk, anyone can file a complaint by filling out the relevant fields such as subject and nature of the complaint along with the complainant’s contact information. The information technology head in the provincial Ombudsman’s office receives the e-complaint and forwards it to the registrar. After assessing the pre-admission criteria of the complaint, the registrar forwards the scrutinized complaints to the concerned investigative departments. Recommendations and findings are then forwarded to the provincial Ombudsman for the final decision.

Tabish Mehtab, a computer science teacher at Government Science College, Quetta and a beneficiary of the online Complaint Redressal System, says, “When my B. Ed. degree was declared null and void by the University of Balochistan, I lodged a complaint with the provincial Ombudsman and within a few days, an advertisement was published on Al-Hamd University’s website and newspaper, stating that our degrees are well-recognized by the University of Balochistan. I was very happy as my career was saved.”

On April 7, 2014, Tabish Mehtab’s complaint was redressed by the Registrar Provincial Ombudsman Balochistan. Tabish’s degree was recognized by the University of Balochistan after the Higher Education Commission approved Al-Hamd University’s degree-awarding status. Mr Abdul Manaan, Deputy Director of Provincial Ombudsman Balochistan, says, “The province’s population is scattered. People living in distant areas can use this service and have their complaint remedied just like Tabish Mehtab. However, there is a need for greater public awareness and we are working on it.”

Development Resource Solution also built public-private partnership by strengthening citizens’ voices on transparent and accountable public service delivery. Signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Provincial Ombudsman Balochistan on November 5, 2013, the project stepped forward to build the capacity of the POB and organized a visit of POB to the office of the Provincial Ombudsman Punjab from 15–18 December, 2013 in order to share best practices, followed by a one-day capacity-building session on December 31, 2013. Moreover, two provincial level seminars during July and September 2013 were held on Right to Information and anti-corruption, and were attended by officials of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the Federal Investigation Authority (FIA), provincial public institutions, politicians, civil society organizations, and the media.

USAID Citizens’ Voice Project has recently awarded a grant to Society for Human Assistance and Development (SHAD) under the thematic area ”Voice for Effective Grievance Redress through the Offices of Ombudsmen.” The aim of this grant is to work towards greater public awareness for an improved complaint redressal mechanism by working closely with the Provincial Ombudsman, Balochistan.