What may happen when I complain

If it turns out that the object of the complaint has done something wrong, the mildest consequence is providing administrative instruction or guidance to improve their practices.

A more serious consequence is a warning given to an authority or an office holder. The right to work in a profession of a person working in social welfare and health care, such as a doctor, may also be restricted, or the rights may be taken away for a certain time or until further notice.

The law says that the authority must take any action specified in a warning to correct a situation or an error. The supervising authority may give a conditional fine to those to whom a warning has been given. This fine will have to be paid if they do not stop acting wrongly or take action in the matter by a certain date.

The Parliamentary Ombudsman and the Chancellor of Justice may give general instructions about good governance when they observe a problem. They may also propose that problems found in the laws are corrected.

The Chancellor of Justice or the Parliamentary Ombudsman may propose to an authority that a dispute is settled or a problem is corrected, or recommend that the authority pays compensation for damage they caused.

A punishment is the consequence of criminal actions. An action may be against the law but not a crime. Crimes are acts defined in the Criminal Code.

If the authority handling a complaint suspects that a crime has taken place, they make a report of an offence. This means that they ask the police to investigate the matter. If the police find in their pre-trial investigation that a crime has taken place and the prosecutor decides that somebody should be charged for it, an action will be brought against the public servant. If the court finds that the public servant is guilty of a crime, it sentences him or her to the punishment stated in the law.

A complaint will not automatically solve the problem that you complain about. Even if the authority or public servant had acted wrongly, the decisions made by the authorities and the court on the matter are still valid. If necessary, you have to appeal them separately. The knowledge that the authority had acted wrongly or against the law, or otherwise behaved improperly in the matter, will be taken into consideration when the authority looks at the matter again.

The authority making a decision on a complaint cannot change or cancel decisions made by other authorities or courts. It may not order an authority to pay compensation to those who suffered because of the error, or give punishments to public servants or authorities who acted wrongly. The authority handling the complaint can also not give orders to other authorities concerning tasks that these authorities are responsible for, including paying benefits.

The authority handling the complaint cannot sack a public servant who acted wrongly or affect his or her position in any other way. It is up to the public servant’s employer to take action, for example if a public servant is given a warning.

No. A decision given on a complaint cannot be appealed against.

You cannot make the same complaint a second time. You can still make claims for a revised decision concerning decisions made by authorities and appeal against them using the normal methods.