Financially Speaking - October 6, 2026

0:30Welcome to another segment of Financially Speaking on your host, Drexel, Seenwin, and such a pleasure. I want to welcome to you, the month of October, and our guests today, our guests, actually, are one of one guests. They are from the Complaints Commission. So before we start the show, we have three persons from the Complaints Commission's office. I want to ask each of them to introduce themselves and what the role is at the Complaints Commission. So thanks again, let people know. Turn in to Financially Speaking. It's not even a few. Good morning. Thank you very much, Drexel. What should I say, Mr. Seenwin? No, no, Drexel is fine. And thank you for having us, of course. And I'm saying thank you on behalf of my colleagues from the Complaints Commission, the Audien-Budsman Office. My name is Charlotte and Jones, and I was appointed Commissioner about 11 months ago. I'm just moving into my 11 month now in October.

1:30I will celebrate my full set of history in Novan, Novan. Thanks. Good morning, everyone. My name is Samaria Leiporn. I'm the Senior Investigator Officer for the Office of the Complaints Commission. I've been a Senior Investigator Officer for two years. My role is to lead investigations as well as to assist in ensuring that the office is run on a day-to-day basis. Hello, everyone. I'm René Myers. I'm the Investigator Officer at the Complaints Commission. I've been here for a desk shot of two years, and my role includes assisting the Senior Investigator Officer with any investigations. Yeah. All right. Good. Now everybody knows who you are. And welcome again to financially speaking. You're going to get, I mean, straight to the point. Anyone who I've not shown how it works, anyone who feels the questions in the area, and you just respond. So the first question to look, listen to the show, the other word, Complaints Commission.

2:32I mean, who can complain? Who can complain? First I'd like to say that the Complaints Commission, we are an independent body. That's very important to know. And important for persons who are complaining that we are independent and so that they will expect and they will find that we approach their campaigns that we impartially and fairly. That is one of the key cornerstones to the Amputsman office. The Complaints Commission looks at maladministration. And so anyone in the public who have a concern or who feel that they have experienced maladministration, who feel that they have experienced delayed service in consistent service where the policies,

3:34they believe the policy may have been applied to them differently than to another person who believe that they've been waiting for a service for an unjuw amount of time service. That's been delayed. Any type of maladministration, persons can come in to the office and submit a complaint. They have to come in physically, but send through email or through our website and lodge a complaint with us. OK, so whether the complaints include like statutory bodies, the police, immigration, elect officials, when you cover those complaints as well. Well, an elected official can have an experienced maladministration. OK, but what are we experiencing something that are elected? And so that's different. So that is what kind of complaints

4:34or what do we have jurisdiction over? So matters related to the police or court matters. We do have jurisdiction over statutory bodies, and statutory bodies, but the police do judiciary. And it's like, wouldn't it help me? But in those areas, particularly the judiciary, elected officials, the members of parliament, we do not have jurisdiction where those are considered. But as a member of the public, if they have an experience that they believe is unfair, et cetera, they can submit a complaint to the complaints commission. OK. So just to get to what the strings were said, while we can receive complaints from anyone member of the public, even against maladministrative bodies,

5:36we won't have the authority to investigate those complaints. We would then refer complaints of those natures, too, questions that have to be adopted, do you, which is complex? Oh, it depends on the nature of the public. We were investigating. Complaints, my thoughts, are from anyone, anyone who submit a complaint. The complaint could be about any department that is up to our sub-dominary priorities. Do you tell me that a dos complaints can be investigated or do we have the authority to investigate? I see. I see. How many complaints did you all receive in the last recording cycle? I wonder. I'll take that one. OK. So for our 2025, 226 reporting cycle, we had a total number of 35 companies. 35? I believe 17 of those complaints would have gone on past the preliminary investigation. It's a full-blown investigations. And compared to the reporting cycle before, we had 26. So we saw an increase in our numbers.

6:37But then OK, you say 17 when beyond. So does that mean that the 18 wasn't resolved? No. So to piggyback off what Miss Saiba was saying, sometimes in person comes to us, the matter may not fall within our jurisdiction. So then you would refer it to the relevant. The relevant. I see. I see. I see. Yes. And sometimes also, certain things can be addressed from the preliminary stage. Because during the preliminary stage, you would write to relevant bodies to bring into their attention to find out more information. And we see that sometimes, the matter would get the attention it deserves from that initial stage. OK. OK. Yes. One of the key things is that the public should feel confident that when a complaint comes into the complaint commission, we do our due diligence. We do our preliminary assessment.

7:38And we never just drop the complaint on the side that we can't deal with that. OK. Yes, preliminary assessment. And there's also we can refer them the matter. We ensure that this may not be within our jurisdiction. We refer the matter to the relevant authority. Or sometimes back to the particular ministry or department. Because one of the fundamental things about the work that we do and starting an investigation, particularly if that complaint is on against public department, the question is, did you go through all the grievance processes with that department? So you have a complaint. Did you go to the supervisor or to the next person, et cetera? So they need to ask for? They must ask for all that before they come. Before they come.

8:38I see. I see. So not just to be back. Sorry. That does not mean you cannot come. Because if you're not sure where you have to go, you can come to us as well. Right. You will guide you to we have to. And also to add, I just want to point out that initially we would have had 9, 11 complaints. But since we start our community, I'll reach in 2022. Right. I know. Mr. Scott, no. We don't know. I don't know. You could see that there was an increase in complaints. So we thought that it was really important for us to continue with these outreach and what for us to reach divided. The way that the way that we're in awareness. So if someone says someone has a complaint about the hospital, can they come to you for that? Or that's all the reach? They can come to us, like I say. But you, but that's all the reach. Depends on assessment. First, the nature of the complaint. Because remember, there is that their part, they partial government, they partially funded by government.

9:42And so we do have a authority to investigate the administration part, but there's a military administration within that department. We can investigate to an extent. And then we'll refer it to the relevant authorities. I see. OK. Just curious. And what, like I know, Ms. Mayas, what was the sum of the general complaints that you all have been receiving? Mostly what? Well, our major area, I would say, is a delay. And that would be delay in responses, delay in the processing of documents. Oh, boy. Yes. Let me pass. Every day then. And do you all find, once they come to you, what about these delays? Are you all seeing action taking place? Sometimes. Sometimes. Sometimes. Once we bring it to their attention, I find that a few of the bodies we write today try to acknowledge it and resolve.

10:44I see. OK. But we would. One of the challenges would be that they are in resolving. Because communication is one of the biggest challenges that I realize and looking at the complaints. Some of the complaints that I see would not get to really have gotten if there was some sense of, OK, we acknowledge. We will get back to you two days, three days, et cetera. So some of that. And then sometimes we find that I have found that in Lazing with departments or departments, heads that sometimes there isn't that urgency to respond to what we may be asking. I find that there is a respect for the role, but the urgency of responding.

11:46So there is a lot of back and forth for us, the nudge, et cetera. And if we were to say something to the public bodies is to encourage speedy responses, not only to the complaints commission, but also an investigative officer, but also to the public that they are serving. Because in a lot of instances, a simple word, a knowledge month, I know what letting the person know that we are delayed in what we are doing. That may help. It does reduce the risk. You feel ignored. You send an email, no response. You send another email following up, no response. And so basically the vibes we're getting is that they look here. So it was just a simple acknowledgement. We acknowledge email. We investigate, we have a get back to you. I think that will help us a lot.

12:47But we don't get any, we don't get no acknowledgement. Yes. And I want to say it's not so much that the department doesn't care. But that's why we get. And I understand. That's all you think. And it's sometimes departments might be overwhelmed. Like resources. That's not an excuse. But there are things that you can put in place to sort of reduce the whole risk of people complaining. Sometimes even an automatic message that says we have your correspondence. We're working on it, et cetera. So I think that that is something that can be worked on. And you do not deal with the private sector, right? This is just the public sector. Just the public sector. But members of the private sector, of course, can't. If they interact with it's legit. But if something happens in the private sector,

13:48that's not your work. That's not our remake. All right. OK. So do you make recommendations? And what happens if your recommendations are not taken? Well, you know recommendations and this live and will come in because she's had eight years of experience at the office. But I find that being there for the year, they make in recommendations is one of the most important things that we can do. Complaint, if you bring a complaint to the Complaints Commission, it might be your individual complaint, but it could speak to why the systemic issues, right? And so we have, in the ordinance, the authority to make recommendations. The problem is that the agency doesn't have to follow these recommendations. They can, they have, though, they, we can request that they, you know,

14:52do what we do, follow up. They tell us how much of the recommendations they're following, so on. But we needed an authority to sort of find them if the recommendations are workable. But I feel that that is one of the strengths that we have the ability to make recommendations about the service and, you know, about what we've seen, et cetera, to improve service delivery to the public. And the, I mean, is that what you guys follow up? Like, just to it. Yes, just the, it's the responsibility of the authority to actually submit to the Commission or a written explanation as to whether they're going to take one of those recommendations or they have alternatives in which they're going to put in place to rectify the problem. Now, in the event, they would have taken on the recommendations. They would tell the Commissioner, I've taken one to several of these recommendations.

15:53It's going to be done within a time spent two months, three months. But at the time, they need to rectify the issue. Now, outside of that, if they do not respond to the Commission, she has the authority to submit a special report to the House of Cabinet to, you know, report the Department and ask them to review the situation itself. Ms. Mayas, do you find that you're getting some of the same complaints coming back from the same department? Are you, are you all experiencing that? Yes, of course we are. Yeah. Sometimes it makes you think to, you know, we would have given you the recommendations. So are you putting this in place to help rectify these issues to help other persons not to face the situation again? But yes, we do find the other things issues from the same department. OK. Now, I know you call the Complaints Commission, right? But can you initiate a complaint on your own

16:54without getting a complaint from somebody? Yes. That's such an important thing. And it's not really initiating a complaint. It's called on-motion. Oh, what? On-motion. On-OWN. On-motion. Our own motion. OK. And that is, if we see a repetitive, something that is systemic. OK, it's across ministries, across departments. It's crossing on due, harm or on due delays, etc. We have that ability to do a report. OK. So the level of customer service across the public service might be one of them, because it's something that keeps reoccurring and reoccurring. So that, again, is one of the strengths for us to be able to do to do our own motion.

17:54Do our reports are investigations and submit that report to the parliament. OK, that's good to know. So do you, I know there's a, people believe that there is some sort of spirit of fear and intimidation, defying baselineor interaction with people that people are not complaining because they're afraid of retaliation. And it's so how do we deal with that? That delays. Yes, some questions. But we encourage them to make a complaint. They can do it in an hour. How do you protect or not? Oh, they can do it in an hour. OK, OK. Or they can do it and they are still protected under the Comprehensive Commission ordinance. There's protection for them. So it's treated as if a magistrate court and a magistrate can ask a person any questions in a court order. And you have to answer. And you cannot be penalized for it. So the Comprehensive Commission ordinance gives the commission of the powers as a magistrate. And so she can question or interview any person

18:55to obtain information that she believes can assist on with an investigation. All right. Without any penalized being penalized. So it can be anonymous. Yeah, it can be anonymous as well. So does that mean that John Gouk is sending you a complaint? Or they have to come to you personally. But he comes to you in person, identify who they are, and then say make anonymous. Or can someone send something anonymously? Either way, you can come to the office and say, look, I've been over by any department. And I've not gotten the service that I believe is to the standard that TCIG promises. I want you all to look into it. Other persons have complaint. But I don't own my name to be court. They're made of a fact that this is an anonymous complaint. I got it. And also they can call it and just submit a complaint anonymously. I understand. All right. Well, that's good to know. So if you're watching the show, know that they can make a complaint anonymously. They don't have to be afraid.

19:56And they're protected, you say, by the Comprehensive Commission ordinance. Yes, they are. Yeah. OK. So this is why it's like, I'm a university officer. So what's the turnaround time for, you know, when time accompanies me, I know it varies depending obviously on the situation. For an average, what's the turnaround time? Well, initially for the beginning of preliminary investigations, we aim to first respond to a complaint within three days to acknowledge they are complaint, or sometimes even 24 hours. Then we would write to the relevant departments and allow them time. But we aim to have a response in about seven days. And that's just how the process follows. And depending on their response and correspondence shares, then we go up to 21 days. So 24 to 21 days. 24 hours to 21 days. So our goal is to acknowledge the complaint.

20:58Of course, we want to receive the complaint, acknowledge the complaint, submit it. We don't want the client to be waiting. We want to have the complaints commission receive our complaint. So we want to acknowledge the complaint. And then in that, at that stage as well, if there's, we see that there's need for additional information. We want to request that information. Because sometimes if you submit complaints, they don't submit documentation. And without the documentation, there's not much we can do besides now write to the department and inquire or we would like to have that documentation. So when we do write to the department, we can say we have a email from your department stating this or that. And we want to know what it is that is going on with this matter. So this is during our preliminary stages. We carry a lot of inquiries. Now, if during these stages, we realize that there are possible medical administration, we then would write to the department and let them know that it's our intention to come to our investigation. So they will get a notice of intent that the Compliance Commission is going to investigate

21:59this matter because we have identified possible medical administration. Once we have submitted that intent, we allow it in 14 days to respond. If they don't respond but in that 14 days, they should tell the commissioner, give a reason why they can't respond, ask for additional time. Now, in the absence of that, once they respond it, and we have realized that there are medical administration then we would submit a report. We will let decline, no, as well as the department that the Compliance Commission has identified a medical administration. And therefore, we would then submit recommendations. And we'll ask the department to rectify the problem. They have 21 days to respond to that final report. And if they cannot respond to that final report between one days, they still have to let the commissioner look at why, give reason, explain. And if they do, like I said before, if they do accept the recommendations, say which ones they accept, if they don't say why

23:01and what alternative measures they're going to put in place to rectify the issue. At the end of the day, what we try to do is to get we dressed for the client. In the event that we do investigate, and we find there's no medical administration, because the other time, city department is doing the right thing. We say to the department and the client, we have investigated the matter. And we were unable to identify medical administration. And therefore, this matter, we are not going to pursue this any further. OK. No, in terms of your office, how many employees do you have, Ms. Jones? And what is your annual budget like? OK. So besides the three of us, we have an administrative officer. And the budget remains sort of static for the last few years. I think until last year, we received a slight increase of about $20,000 to the budget.

24:05So we have a little over a quarter of a million dollars for a little over that. OK. So we have a lot of work for operational expenses, as well as salaries, and so on, for the four of us. And so I would say while last year, we got that uplift that allowed us to really push our communication and our outreach activities, you know, do some work to more modernize the website and, you know, do some suffered paraphernalia, increase the way that we go out to the community. With a little more, you can always do a little more. And so that we've been operating on that amount for the last few years, yes. So how do you measure? I know it's probably not much compared to overall things. But how do you measure the value that we get as taxpayers

25:08from the money that comes in front of the complaints commission? How do you measure the value? You know, that is a very, I like that question because it's something that I've been asking myself and something that has been in discussion in the overall umbertsman world, measuring the impact of the services of the Umbertsman office. And I hope that we are able to do that with some, for example, some of the marketing initiatives were able to look at the increases in engagement on our Facebook, um, Facebook and our website and so on. But we do have to do some work with the clients that we have at the general public in terms of the, so our goal, for example, one of the KPIs is to increase the awareness so that people understand and the value of the office and usage increase. So at the end of the year, we'll have to measure the statistics

26:11against that particular KPI, the way that we handle the cases and the timelines in which we conduct investigations and to completion, um, to the satisfaction of the client. Those are things that we're hoping to be able to measure. Okay. So that we ourselves can look at the gaps in, in the work that we are doing. They, they respond to the, um, from parliament and from others to the report to our annual report. That is another measure of the perception of value of the office. How are we getting feedback and what the recommendations that are in the, the, um, report are they take, napa, they discuss it and so on. Okay. So we do hope to be measuring those because it is against the measurements. We'd be able then to make a case for additional, um, increases, um,

27:15for the, for the office. One of the things that we talk about in the office, a lot is accessibility to this service. And while we do have the online ability, but they can, um, email, etc, we believe that there might be a portion of the population who want a physical access. Accessibility. Yes. And we don't like not to be able to go to Georgia, but we on brand token, we don't have a presence on profidencialis. So there's that, there isn't that physical accessibility. And so, you know, that's a gap that we will have to address with it by other means, but certainly, uh, the ability to do clinics that come ever so often, etc. It could be a start, but it's certainly one of the gaps that we believe, uh, we can fill and with additional data and so on about the

28:15efficiency of the office, we'd be able to do that. Although I don't think that we should be trying very hard to convince that this is a very important office, a place, an independent, impartial place to go to, to have your problem addressed fairly, and knowing that we don't work on the cohesion and direction from anyone. So we need to be able to build that and give people the sense that, yes, you know, you all could help me. Yeah. Whether any, um, times when you'll have to intervene where it changed, like say, government policies and procedures as a result of people complaining, whether any examples where it ended up changing something that the government was doing. Now it's become a policy.

29:16And I became a policy. I think one thing I think we can speak of is that I notice now they have put into a step, well, they, they had informed us that they were going to do other part. I don't know the problem. Oh, okay. And do you believe that I know you said that your office is on anybody to complain, but you prefer if they exhaust their complaints internally first. Yes. Do you think that there's adequate internal complaints? Complaints, but it's the thing is enough in the government departments. Do you think that needs improvement? There's always room for improvement in wally rates. I like that. I would say, I would say that I, that's a good answer, Miss Lightburn, but I would

30:23say that there is just by the way that the complaints are coming and what is not happening with the complaints and the management of complaints in some departments that is need for, and on that's something we need to investigate and find out too about the processes for handling a complaints management system in some areas. I feel that sometimes it's absent and we are at ease present too. There needs to be, it's like the grief, you know, the process in the public service. Yes, one, it's there and it's clear, but a lot of persons who come and some of them have been working for years and are not, oh, fair, are they not knowledgeable about the procedure, the grievance procedure, which is outlined.

31:24And so there is a responsibility on all workers, right? Well, the, you know, the supervisor, etc. will make sure that they do their training. But as a worker, we, I would encourage persons to get familiar with the grievance procedures within their department, within the public service because it exists. And when you know it, you can use it. Yeah. And then you'd be able to say, well, I followed it. And I waited two weeks and I waited one week and I escalated. And then you come to the commission and we have that documentation that we are able to then work with and, you know, follow up. Yeah. And it's important because I believe some people do not know about the grievance process. And it's there. It's there. Everything every, I guess is one for the able whole entire government. Well, remember, yes, yes, all government departments there that, that's the handbook, the

32:25public service, ordinance and handbook. My understanding is, and of course, I can use the secretary bodies right there. But some such dirty bodies have their own handbooks and ways of managing. And some like us, we follow, we have the employee here, we have the ordinance, the employee ordinance, but we also do refer to the public service ordinance that is there. And it's in there. I don't think some people know actually. And that is something that's well, and that surprised me a well. And I'm sorry, if I could go back to the fact that I've spent 35 years in the public service, okay, an orientation is very important. It is. It's important part of, you know, starting a job, even sometimes refreshing the public service ordinance and the handbook, they're there and all employees should have access to it

33:30and they do have access. And I said, when you get your letter to say that you, I employed, it refers to those documents. So I encourage people, the documents that says to you that you'll be governed under these documents, go find them and read them and know your entitlements and rights, etc. Because very often people come to the office and, you know, be the investigative officers basically have to let them know that they have to go through those processes, etc. Which sometimes they are missed about, but they are there. Yeah. All right. So what do you think any one of you, what do you think is the biggest misconception about the complaints commission? Anyone who can answer that? I guess we could all give one. To hell. They'll all give one. So one of the biggest misconceptions I think is that we work with government.

34:33Oh. The complaints commission does not work with government. Per se. We don't take sides. We are impartial. So while we have to. You're funded by government. We do not work for government. We do not work for government. We are funded by government, but we are independent under the constitution and therefore the government cannot give us directives. We work independently. So that's the next conception. We do not work for government. We work for the whole of Jacksongate. Independent. Independent. So there's no side taken. We work for everybody. And you're not under pressure. No, we're not under pressure. We want to ensure that good governance takes place and good governance means that if there's a service that's been provided, it's been provided in line with policies in the laws. And if this service was provided and you don't feel pleased with the service or we can go to the government diplomacy. You know what? We did this wrong. This administration action was wrong. We need you to rectify it. Apologize.

35:34Do the right thing. Good governance is our main goal. Okay. Well, for me, I would say that often times persons believe they have to be absolutely certain that their complaints falls within our jurisdictions. As I cases where someone has said, oh, I didn't know I could come to you all about this or I wasn't sure. So I would encourage them that although you may not be sure, there's no harm in coming to us. And again, if it doesn't fall in our jurisdiction or on Monday, then we can refer you to another entity, another department that can assist you or just give you guidance. Yes, yes, yes, yes, Tina. So people are watching the show today, right? And they feel that a government department has treated them unfieldy, right? What exactly should they do right now this afternoon or the morning? They're watching the show. We have to complain to the commissioner and they feel they've been treated unfieldy. And I know maybe we'll feel that they've been treated unfieldy by government departments.

36:36What should that person do right now with what should they do this afternoon with complaints commission? Similar complaint. So that's what the police commission said. Reach out to one of us. We're here to assist you. If you're not sure what you have to do, reach out to us. We can assist you. I mean, I would also encourage them to take a visit to our Facebook page, our website. Do you have Facebook page? Yeah, look at the work that we do. What falls within our mandate. On website. The kind of cases, our outreach, just to see what we're about. And yes. I like to manage expectations. And one of the things they investigate is doing preliminary stages to see that these inquiries that we haven't found anything yet. Okay. The investment is not. We're doing rest in the preliminary stages. And so it is to say to the members of the public that not all feelings of unhappiness.

37:41What the service is, my administration. I think Ms. Lightburn alluded to that a little earlier on. Not everything that we feel disgruntled about will turn out to be my administration. There might be an opportunity to fix something, etc. It might be that a policy that was delivered may have been kind of outdated. But it doesn't mean that it is mild administration. So we try to manage the expectations from very early on. And I also say to the public departments that we may have to investigate. That they don't have to believe that an investigation is a sort of, you know, you all don't know what you're doing. It's kind of a thing. It's not that. And sometimes a department, but like, you know, we're trying our best.

38:44Why are you all investigating how it is really looking at how the service was delivered? And then having the opportunity to then correct it and to make recommendations to make it better. Yes. Of course, you know, we are on financial speaking with light of our finances. And there is a cost involved, you know, individuals making complaints is a subfinancial consequences. Yes. It's the lady, you know, time waiting. Does the complaint commission factor that, the financial consequences that people experience? Because of the complaints, is that factor in? I try to say that when all of such complaints come, we always like to write the department. And advice and, you know, questions when waiting for so long. This has set a business path. This has cost them money. But at the same time, the complaints commission doesn't have to authority to pay them.

39:48You don't have any means of, you know, correcting that financially for them. You know, what an oxen department to apologize or any vendors or refund, oxen to refund the person immediately instead of having them wait long periods of time to get a refund. Well, in the initial stage, once you know a document is denied or a services denied, let the person know the service is denied in reasonable time and let them know when they can collect a refund in reasonable time. I wish there was a way that we can, when you do appraisals with departments, I wish there's a way that they can contact you all to see how many complaints came from that department. Well, we do publish or annual report. Oh, you're okay, okay. And it has to be departments that the complaints come from? Yes. And as I speak to the ministry, maybe not the individual department, but the ministry for sure. Okay, okay. But then we want to say that that is not to say we don't want to appear as adversaries.

40:53And we, you know, like calling out persons. So we have to remember that we are addressing my administration. What I would prefer is to be able to have the more authority to ensure that recommendations, yes, or the steps that we are able when we're falling up that we are able to get that feedback and that we can see a different and something happened because of this complaint. You know, I think that that is very important, that ability and the authority to follow up and ensure and to get some more teeth or strength in that particular area. Yeah. I mean, I wish all the best. I think it's really needed. I think what we need really is resolutions. Yes. Yes, we have the complaints commission and people found their complaints. But many resolutions we don't need to have repetitive complaints. We need to see those complaints being resolved otherwise.

41:55You know, it's the point, you know, complaining, complaining, the same thing. Yeah. I think we need to reach a point where these complaints are taken seriously and dealt with. Yes. I think that is the challenge that I see for me as the enforcement and the office to really be able to make. I would say to make over just to begin to look at what we can do to ensure that that that we get strength in that particular area that we, because it's all about looking at the systemic issues, making recommendations and pushing, sticking them seriously enough. It might not be the recommendation, but certainly we've raised an issue. And certainly we can see that it is being looked at and that, you know, something would be impacted.

42:56Yeah. I think that would be a good. And so we want to be able, one of the KPIs that we have set for ourselves is to be able to present at least one. Own motion for the year. And we've gotten sufficient. Complaints. With sort of trends, with a trend that says, look, something is happening and we need to really. Right. And it is not a shame. I mean, it's about, you know, making it. It's really highlighting it and seeing that this is happening. If there's a potential for it to increase. And so let's work on how we can be just that from. Yeah. Everything I think we should be about being more efficient. Yes. And providing better services to people. And that's why I believe I hope the PS is a watching issue who has that's the.

44:03The appraisals for the employees. I just hope that somehow we are able to link these things together. I think that's very, very, very important because. Civil servant is a bad name and most of them are not unfortunately. It is. You don't hear too much positive things about the departments. And but it can be better. You know, well, that's unfortunate because there's a whole lot of very hard working. They are. They are. They are. They are. And I mentioned that in my article last week. I did write an article about the civil servants. I say there's some very hard working civil servants. But they also some areas that need a lot of improvement. I mean, like everything else. And if the complaints commission can contribute to the recommendations that would help to improve service and reduce the complaints. I think that that's what we want to do. It's all about us doing our parts with helping the system manage complaints, investigating

45:07complaints. And we make recommendations to help improve service delivery. A system. It shouldn't matter who you are. It shouldn't matter who the customer is. We should have a standard in our departments. And you just treat people with respect. Yes. And it should matter who you are. No. You treat people the same. Yes. And respect people. I think it because there are concerns that people treat differently than you are. And some nice, all the boss. For today I had to call someone I was waiting on some time for someone. One of my clients. And I had to call ahead of the department. I even have department. And he responded. Right away. And he told me. Thirty minutes out here from someone. It should be like that. It should be like that. This particular person always responds to the emails. Well, if you find a complaint like that, send them up to the complaints commission.

46:08Oh, okay. Okay. I just want to add, I mean, and you find that so often that persons have to get to the top before they can get a response when there is so much middle management that, you know, can assist before they get. Yeah, but we don't know sometimes who middle managers are. That's the thing. We don't know. So tell us about this month. This is, um, hi, finances. Um, but, Monday. Um, but Monday. Um, but Monday. Tell us about this. This is October. Tell us about this. It's October. Well, it's October 8th. It's the second Thursday. In October every, every year. Every, the second Thursday. Yes. This is quite a recent thing from my reading. I think this is about the nine year that they are observing on but Monday internationally.

47:08And so what we have decided to do within the complaints commission is to, um, spread the activities throughout the month. So we began, well, yesterday we, um, Ms. Lightburn and I, we did our recordings. Of a, um, but Monday message that will be played throughout the month. RTC. I must sang them a lot. They have given us a slot. Um, every day, 22 days or the Monday to Friday. This month is given us a slot to a PSC that, um, you will hear. During the news. Oh, thank you. We're doing the news. So we thought that that would be a popular time to, we have two placement banners. Are they, um, both airports on Grand Turk and Providencialis? Later on this month, we're going to be, um, with the committee college and we're hosting our youth

48:14speakers. Um, they, we hope the young people will get involved with sort of, um, debate like structure for prizes for a second and third, but they'll be debating the Umbudsman and the Umbudsman role and the whole impartiality, etc. And does the Umbudsman have enough teeth, kind of thing. So you should look out for that. It's on the 29th of this month and it's going to be live streamed. Of course, um, Ms. Adwin mentioned earlier that we are doing the, um, we're going to North and Middle from this afternoon. We have been doing these outreach activities for the year. And so now we're going to North and Middle and generally we are going to just be doing, really, uh, doing a lot of work with our social media as well. So you'll see PSAs and, um, a lot of material there so that we could increase the engagement, um, on our social media platform.

49:25So that's what we have in store. Of course, um, the governor, we, we're with the, all the way independent. Administratively, we fall under the governor's office and we expect that, you know, she may have a message on the day for us. And part as part of the observance is, I don't know if the ladies, anything to add. And this could be a closing remarks as well because we have to wrap up. We wrap it up. Um, I'd like to add that, you know, I would like for government to see the complaints commission as an alternative to us assisting them with dealing with complaints of SIDAS, as watchdogs. You know, I know that's the name that people normally refer to us as, but we're not watchdogs on. We are here to ensure that, you know, government does the job that they're prescribed to do. And it's in good governance and to ensure that the general public receives the services that they are entitled to.

50:31Um, so when we call, please answer, send us a response to our emails and it timely matter because we want to assist those persons who are relying on you to provide them the service that they're expecting a few. So please answer us. Thank you. Yeah, I'm saying. And a timely man. And for those who don't answer, please answer. All right. Well, for me, I'll keep it short, but I will just encourage the persons up the Turks and Kegas Islands to know that the complaints commission is here for you. Your concerns matter to us. No matter how small you might think they are, just come to us. I'm sure that your voice is heard. We are a body to ensure that there's good governance, good public service administration and to piggyback a little bit on the witness life and said just from my experience as an investigative officer. I would like for more government bodies to see us as a partner.

51:33We're here again to make sure that there's good governance in the Turks and Kegas Islands, good public service for the people that we serve. We're not here to judge you or to make you to make ourselves feel superior. No, we're here just to assist our people. Good. You have anything else in your mind? Just to say that apart from what my colleagues have said and really, that's the be all an end all of the office. But I would encourage government departments, statutory bodies to look at their complaint management systems and review them and ensure that they are there so that the risk is reduced. That people have to come to the complaints office when you have a system in place that the workers know about that the clients or the public can use. So complaint handling, complaint handling process can reduce the need for the purposes to come to the public, to the complaints commission.

52:43So we encourage that for all departments. So how, okay, what is the email address? The person is watching the show because you're physically located in Grand Jair. So how do they reach you? What's the email address? Complaints on the school commission at curve.tc. Okay. Very simple. Complaints on the school commission at curve.tc. And our website of office of complaints tci.com. Okay. Well, thank you very much ladies. We've been on financially speaking show. For those who are watching, I encourage you to make it complaints. I know sometimes you feel like you, on deaf ears, you just make complaints, nothing happens. But I want to continue to encourage you to make the complaints. For those in the third who are watching the working government departments, I encourage you to try and find a way to put in the complaints

53:47and the appraisal forms for your staff. Find a way to link that together so they can take that seriously as well. So when they see an email account from the complaint commission, they'll know whether they have a better response, otherwise this is going to look bad on my appraisal. So that's it. Thank you for watching. Financially speaking. I'm your host Drexel Simons. You're next to us at the same time. Thank you for having us. Thank you.