THE Office of the Ombudsman Solomon Islands is an established government agency that independently deals with maladministration of public offices.

Explaining the function of the office, Principal Research Officer of the OOSI, Mr Rex Akomae said the office deals with promotion of fairness, accountability, transparency and resolving of activities under maladministration as a way to advocate for anti-corruption.

Mr Akomae told the press during a recent press conference that as other institutions of integrity, they also play a major role in fighting against corruption in public offices.

He said that from the OOSI perspective, they categorise corruption as governance and administrative issue.

Mr Akomae said that OOSI’s function is mainly to play the role of watch dog over government institutions and other public bodies.

He said that regarding the work of OOSI, they have their limitation in which they can only perform according to their jurisdiction, which is limited to maladministration.

Mr Akomae said the issues may include, sidelining of the standard procedures of the office by the responsible people, when responsible people do not diligently execute their duties, unfair decisions that tend to pose negative impacts on the lives of citizens and others.

“And all these issue are dramatic and also frustrating when it comes to unfair deliverance of government services to the people.

“It’s often and also everywhere, as it is not only the office of the Ombudsman experienced such corrupt practices.

“Thus, when dealing with such issue, the OOSI either received complain from the public or launches its own investigation into any issue that is under our boundary of work,” he said.

Mr Akomae said that they make investigation and after the investigation they make the recommendations based on the report collected.

He said that they also consult the office subjected for the investigation and talk with them to work on improving the area of concern.

Mr Akomae also said that they also work with other organisations during the course of their investigation.

He said the reason is that they can only work towards what is require by them, and can make reference to other organisations when maybe the issue is within their areas of work.

However, Mr Akomae said that there is no double that corruption is rife in the country. In order to combat to help address the issue it needs combination of all organisation and individual to join the fight.