The Secretary General of the Bureau Ombudsman Sint Maarten has returned from Bermuda after a one week exchange visit and training at the Bureau Ombudsman.
The Ombudsman of Bermuda, Mrs. Arlene Brock, is one of the Ombudsman in the Caribbean who organizes training for staff members of other Ombudsman institutions. The training consisted of reviewing the complaint management system, the steps relating to general and systemic investigations, statistics gathering, preparation and presentation of the Annual Reports. Ms. Philips sat in on complaints assessment meetings with directors of various Departments and was able to experience firsthand the installation of the first Public Access Group. This Group is initially established for one year and will serve as an advisory group for the Ombudsman.
During her stay Ms. Philips visited the Human Rights Commission and the Consumer Affairs and met with the chairman of the Police Complaints Authority. These agencies are complaint authorities in their respective areas.
As the Ombudsman of Sint Maarten will be organizing the upcoming CAROA conference in 2013, and considering that the Ombudsman of Bermuda has organized the CAROA Conference in 2008, one of the subjects of the training was Conference Logistics.
The training/exchange was very fruitful and again it shows the tight nit relationship that exits among the Ombudsman institutions.
This visit was sponsored by USONA.
