This high level of trust in the Austrian Ombudsman Board was also confirmed by the APA/OGM Trust Index published in September 2023. The Ombudsman Board was surveyed for the first time and came in first place with around 58%. "We would like to express our gratitude for this trust. It is an additional incentive to stand up for people's concerns. We will continue to work hard to live up to this trust," says the current Chairman of the Austrian Ombudsman Board, Bernhard Achitz.
In this annual report, Ombudsmen Bernhard Achitz and Walter Rosenkranz and Ombudswoman Gaby Schwarz provide an overview of the most important audit results and the Ombudsman Board's activities in 2023.
Number of complaints in the area of public administration
In 2023, 23,124 people contacted the Austrian Ombudsman Board with a concern. This means that an average of 94 people seeking advice and assistance contacted the AOB every working day. 16,655 complaints concerned the administration. Of these, in 5,275 cases it was not necessary to refer the matter to the authorities. These could be settled immediately or concerned pending proceedings. In 6,469 cases, the complaints concerned issues outside the mandate of the Austrian Ombudsman Board. The independent jurisdiction was responsible for this. In these cases, the Ombudsman Board provided information on the legal situation and informed the persons concerned about further counselling services.
The Ombudsman Board's auditing activities cover the entire public federal administration. It therefore monitors all authorities and departments that enforce federal laws. In 2023, the Austrian Ombudsman Board initiated a total of 7,802 audit procedures in the federal administration:
- Compared to the previous year, there was an increase in investigation proceedings in the area of internal security (up 14%). With 2,064 files (2022: 1,811), these concerned the most proceedings (26.5 %). The majority of complaints concerned issues relating to asylum, settlement and aliens police law, followed by complaints about the police.
- There was a particularly high increase in complaints from the areas of climate protection, environment, energy, mobility, innovation and technology, with an increase of over 42% compared to the previous year. A total of 1,480 investigations were initiated (2022: 1,038), accounting for 19% of all investigations in 2023. The complaints related in particular to the climate bonus (including cost-of-living adjustment) for 2022.
- The social and health sector accounted for 1,416 (18.2 %) of the review procedures. 1,190 audit procedures concerned the justice sector and the data protection authority (15.3%).
In addition to the federal administration, the Austrian Ombudsman Board audits the provincial and municipal administrations in seven federal provinces. Only the provinces of Tyrol and Vorarlberg have established their own provincial ombudsman offices. In the reporting year, a total of 3,578 review procedures concerned the provincial and municipal administration. The number of complaints here rose by 17% compared to the previous year (2022: 3,058).
A total of 12,752 investigation procedures were concluded in the reporting year. Of these, the Austrian Ombudsman Board identified maladministration in 2,437 cases, i.e. around one fifth.
Preventive protection of human rights
The preventive human rights inspections of the Austrian Ombudsman Board are carried out by a total of seven expert commissions of the Austrian Ombudsman Board, six commissions with regional responsibility and one nationwide commission for the execution of sentences and measures. These commissions carried out a total of 505 inspections in the reporting year. 481 checks were carried out in facilities where people are detained. Police operations were accompanied 24 times. In order to obtain as unbiased an impression as possible, the checks were generally unannounced (96% of all checks).
In 64% of the preventive checks, the commissions felt compelled to criticise the human rights situation.
The Austrian Ombudsman Board examines these cases on the basis of the commissions' observations and liaises with the responsible ministries and supervisory authorities in order to work towards improvements. As a result, it has already been possible to eliminate many of the abuses and hazards identified. The results of these audits are numerous recommendations from the Austrian Ombudsman Board, which are intended to ensure human rights standards in the facilities.
The list of all recommendations (2012-2023) is available on the website of the Austrian Ombudsman Board at www.volksanwaltschaft.gv.at/empfehlungsliste.
Further details can be found in the press release and the reports.
