The Public Independent Conciliator, Mme Telelen Dorothy Motaze openining the workshop
The Office of the Public Independent Conciliator (OPIC) is set to launch its online digital platform to manage complaints. It is within this premise that the institution organized a two-day capacity building training workshop to enable staff to acquaint themselves with the complaint management procedures and the required digital technology of staff. The workshop which took place from the 12th to the 13th of December 2024, at the conference hall of the institution was a follow-up of the Knowledge Sharing and Benchmarking Workshop on Complaint Management for OPIC North-West and South-West which held in Douala in August 2024 and the workshop to harmonize the management procedure for both institutions that held in Bafoussam in the month of October 2024.
Staff attentively following a presentation on the Digital platform on complaint management by Mokube Derick, IT manager OPIC
While opening the workshop deliberations, the Public Independent Conciliator, Mme Telelen Dorothy Motaze stated that the workshop was important given that OPIC’s core activity is to settle disputes between users of local Councils and the Regional Assembly services. She further explained that after the first two workshops held in Douala and Bafoussam, it was necessary to pass the knowledge and skills to other staff of the institution in order to keep everyone abreast with the procedure and technology.
Dr. Tambe Cyril drilling staff on OPIC’s Complaint Management procedure
During the workshop, the staff received lectures on preliminary considerations to be taken into account before the treatment of a complaint, the complaint management procedure, SharePoint software and record keeping using excel.
As regards the preliminary consideration to be taken into account before treating a complaint, staff were given a checklist of items which involve: peculiarities of the PIC complaints treatment mandate, desired qualities of the complaint treatment officer, and the rights and obligations of parties. Regarding the complaint management procedure, they were equally drilled on the seven stages of the complaint management which consist of reception and initiation of action, registration and documentation, preliminary examination, complaint examination phase, conciliatory process, monitoring and follow up, and finally case closure.
As regards SharePoint, the participants learnt that it is a web-based collaboration platform developed by Microsoft with many components, each serving specific purposes for document management, and complaint management workflows.
According to the IT Manager of OPIC, Derick Mokube, with the SharePoint digital platform, users of OPIC services can submit their complaints. Once operational, the platform will expedite the transmission and management of complaints, especially to users based in the hinterlands of the region.
