A total 85% of recommendations made by the Ombudsman have been implemented, principal permanent secretary Mario Cutajar said.

Speaking during the launch of a publication with the public administration’s replies to the Ombudsman’s annual report, Mr Cutajar said 322 cases were investigated by the Ombudsman in 2017.

The number had to be taken in the context of the hundreds of thousands of transactions taking place between the public sector and the people.

He noted that only 16 cases related to ARMS, which had 280,000 annual transactions with the public, were taken to the Ombudsman.

From the 138,000 people entitled to free medicine, amounting to more than half a million transactions, only seven cases were taken to the Ombudsman.

And from the millions of transactions at Mater Dei - a 950-bed hospital, only 10 cases were investigated by the Ombudsman.

A total 92,000 pensions were issued monthly but only 13 cases were taken to the Ombudsman. And from the 143,000 requests for other social benefits, only two ended in front of the Ombudsman.

A fourth of the cases taken to the Ombudsman did not have to be investigated as immediate steps had been taken by the public administration.

Mr Cutajar said the figures showed that the public administration was doing well and the majority of cases could have been solved had the complainants gone immediately to one of the servizz.gov hubs or the customer care office of the relevant ministry or secretariat.

On persons of trust, Mr Cutajar said he did not agree with the Ombudsman that their employment was not in line with the Constitution. These people were engaged for a definite period and not on the same lines as public officials.

Mr Cutajar said that since the 1990s, when such people started to be employed, there was nothing which regularised their appointment and work. The number of persons of trust at the moment was the same as under the previous administration, he said.

He referred to an instance where the Health Commissioner within the Ombudsman’s office negotiated with a trade union following receipt of a complaint on a sectoral agreement, which was a legal document signed between a union and a government, and  said he did not agree that the Ombudsman should go into matters relating to industrial relations.