Benchmark for public ombudsman portals of the State Courts of Accounts in Brazil

Abstract

In Brazil, public ombudsman offices, established to handle citizen complaints about public services, face challenges amidst the ongoing digital transformation of governmental institutions. While government strategies aim at modernization, practical implementation falls short, evident in issues such as infrastructure problems and service disconnection. This extends to public ombudsman offices, as it is part of the public bodies, being difficult even to measure and compare their portals to each other. This study, conducted in partnership with the State Court of Accounts of Pernambuco, seeks to address these challenges by creating a benchmark for evaluating Brazilian State Courts of Accounts' ombudsman portals. Drawing on relevant legislation, the Brazilian Public Ombudsman Maturity Model, and public service literature, the benchmark establishes requirements and acceptance criteria, validated by public service specialists, aiming to evaluate the portals and through this evaluation, assist the ombudsman's offices in understanding what needs to be improved or implemented on their portals to achieve their objectives. This benchmark also enables ombudsman's offices to learn from each other. The main conclusions highlights the need for public ombudsman portals to improve the way they implement their core services, such as registering and tracking of citizen’s manifestations. Additionally, there's an emphasis on the necessity for portals to reach a broader audience by implementing more accessibility features and modernizing their communication and navigation through virtual assistants and chat bots. The application of the benchmark also clarifies that there are better-developed portals that can serve as inspiration for less-developed ones, both in general and in terms of specific requirements.