The Public Independent Conciliators of the North-West Mr. Tamfu Simon and Mme Telelen Dorothy Motaze co-moderating the workshop
Several staff of the Offices of the Public Independent Conciliator (OPIC) for the North-West and South-West Regions have shared experience on Complaint Management mechanisms and process. This occurred during a three-day Benchmarking and Knowledge Sharing Workshop co-organized by the Offices of the Public Independent Conciliator for the North-West and South-West Regions and the Office of the City Ombudsman of the City of Cape Town, South Africa at Hotel Prince De Galles, Douala from the 19th to 24th August 2024.
View of the hall with staff of OPIC North-West and South-West Regions
As new institutions with just three years of existence following their creation by Law No. 2019/024 of 24 December 2019 to institute the General Code of Regional and Local Authorities and Decree No. 2020/773 of 24 December 2020 to lay down conditions for discharge of the duties of Public Independent Conciliator in the North-West and South-West Regions, the Public Independent Conciliators (PIC) of both institutions saw the need to upgrade their staff’s capacity on complaint management as spelt out in section 369-370 of the General Code of Regional and Local Authorities and articles 11-15 of Decree No. 2020/773 of 24 December 2020 to lay down conditions for discharge of the duties of Public Independent Conciliator in the North-West and South-West Regions.
Staff of OPIC North-West and South-West attentive during a presentation
The workshop co-moderated by Mme Telelen Dorothy Atabong Spouse Motaze, and her counterpart Mr. Simon Tamfu, respectively, was attended by twenty staff drawn from both institutions and the facilitator, Sergio Daniels, Senior Investigation Officer for the Office of the City Ombudsman of the City of Cape Town, South Africa. Mme. Telelen Dorothy Atabong spouse Motaze, during her welcome Address said, the workshop is very pertinent as it will go a long way to significantly improve on both institution practices of managing complaints.
Mme Telelen Dorothy Motaze speaking during the opening ceremony
The modules presented by Sergio Daniels on topics like: Registration and Assessment Unit (RAU), Early Resolution Unit (ERU) – Complaint management (Share Point), Record Management, Complex Investigation Unit (CIU) – Case Management, Statistical Reporting and Stakeholder Management and Awareness globally enable staff from both Offices of the Public Independent Conciliator (OPIC) to acquire information about the structure and functioning of the Office of the City Ombudsman of the City of Cape Town, its complaint management mechanism and areas of intervention relating to different challenges they face in handling complaints. It is worth mentioning that Sergio Daniels was also opportune to learn from the experiences of the Offices of the Public Independent Conciliator for the North-West and South-West regions especially in domains like the legal framework, creation, missions, mandates, organization, resources and functioning of Cameroon’s Public Independent Conciliators.
Sergio Daniels, Senior Investigation Officer of the Office of the City Ombudsman of Cape Town, South Africa facilitating the workshop
The general discussions, Questions-and-Answers sessions which tailed after the various presentations by the facilitator was characterized with the formulation of recommendations for both institutions. Inherent amongst these recommendations was the digitalization of the complaint management procedure of both institutions.
Dr. Tambe of OPIC South-West Region presenting the Complaint procedure of the institution
Wrapping up the workshop, the PIC for the North-West Region in his closing remarks expressed gratitude to the resource person for his guide through such a productive and enlightening session, reiterating that his expertise and dedication have been the backbone of this workshop. He was impressed by the electronic complaint management system of the Office of the City Ombudsman of the City of Cape Town, South Africa and expressed the willingness of the two Offices of the Public Independent Conciliator to adopt the same in order to advance the treatment of complaints here in Cameroon.
Family picture of the facilitator Sergio Daniels and both Public Independent Conciliators after receiving the gifts
The end of the workshop was graced with the presentation of gifts to the facilitator Sergio Daniels by both Offices of the Public Independent Conciliator as a mark of Cameroonian hospitality.
