SIBU: The Sarawak Ombudsman has stressed the importance of strengthening the culture of integrity and accountability among civil servants to ensure that the people's confidence in the government administration system continues to be maintained.

Deputy Minister in the Sarawak Premier's Department (Integrity and Ombudsman), Dato Dr. Juanda Jaya, stressed that every complaint from the public must be seen as positive feedback to improve the quality of public services and not just to find fault with any party.

"Complaints are a catalyst for us to move forward. Without complaints, we will not know our weaknesses and will not change," he said.

He said this when speaking at the Opening Ceremony of the Sarawak Ombudsman Town Hall Session with Central Zone Civil Servants at a hotel here on Monday.

According to him, the culture of refusing responsibility must be stopped among civil servants to ensure that every matter of the people can be resolved efficiently and with integrity.

"The culture of refusing responsibility must be stopped. If something can be resolved, do it. If it cannot, explain why. Remember, the office does not belong to us, but to the government and the people," he stressed.

Dato Dr. Juanda also stressed that civil servants should support the implementation of digital transformation introduced by the state government to speed up administrative matters and avoid bureaucratic red tape.

“In this digital era, if applications are made online, physical documents should no longer be requested. There is no reason to reject the use of digital systems,” he said.

He explained that the Sarawak Ombudsman functions independently and reports directly to the Sarawak Legislative Assembly, not to the Sarawak Premier or any minister.

Meanwhile, he also stressed that corruption does not only involve money, but also abuse of power and influence, including delays in public affairs that violate standard operating procedures (SOPs).

The ceremony was attended by Sarawak Chief Ombudsman, Dato Sri Abdul Ghafur Shariff, Sarawak Deputy Chief Ombudsman, Alexander Unya Ambon, as well as 150 civil servants from the Central Zone who participated in the dialogue session to strengthen governance and a culture of integrity in the state public service. -UKASnews