'Equality Watchdog Should Handle Complaints Faster'

The city's auditor on Wednesday urged the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) to explore ways to shorten the time used to conclude complaint cases.

In its report, the Audit Commission said the EOC has set a target of concluding 75 percent of its complaint cases within six months. It found that five percent of the 2,800 cases concluded between January 2020 and September 2022 took more than a year to process.

"The average time required to conclude the 128 cases was 551 days, ranging from 369 to 1,064 days," it said.

Of the 25 complaint cases it looked at that had lengthy handling times, the auditor said most of them lacked an investigation plan – contrary to the requirement set out in the EOC’s Internal Operating Procedures Manual.

The reporting work of a fifth of the cases examined was not comprehensive, the auditor added.

The commission said the EOC should remind staff to prepare investigation plans for cases in future and better monitor work progress.

The EOC chairperson generally agreed with the audit recommendations.