'Fundamental review' of grievance procedures in Defence Forces

THE MANNER in which grievances are dealt with in the Defence Forces is to be subject to a “fundamental review”, Minister for Defence Alan Shatter has said.

In her annual report yesterday, Ombudsman for the Defence Forces Paulyn Marrinan Quinn SC expressed a hope that the powers of her office could be extended to allow her to investigate complaints from family members of serving personnel.

She also hoped to have oversight powers in relation to inspecting military places of detention and to be able to use her discretion in waiving the 12-month timeline for the receipt of complaints, especially when the soldier is serving overseas.

Mr Shatter said he welcomed her suggestions for reform as part of an overall review of the redress-of-wrongs procedure.

The annual report revealed that the number of grievances resolved internally before they reached her office more than doubled in the last two years.

In 2009, only 21 per cent of grievances initiated by serving members of the Defence Forces were resolved internally; last year that figure had increased to 46 per cent.

Ms Marrinan Quinn said the improvements had come about because members of the Defence Forces had taken a “constructive approach” to dealing with internal grievances.

Her office dealt with 83 queries last year. Nearly half (37) were related to promotions procedures, 23 related to the maladministration of career-related procedures, 13 to selection procedures for career courses, six to overseas deployment and three complaints – all from the same person – related to bullying.

Ms Marrinan Quinn noted that 36 per cent of cases involved the management and administration of promotion selection procedures. She expressed a hope that new procedures, which are due to come into place next month, would be “more transparent and consistent”. There were no cases of sexual harassment recorded and only four complaints came from women.

Ms Marrinan Quinn said bullying in the Defence Forces was often more covert than overt and did not necessarily constitute a soldier being shouted at by an angry sergeant. Instead, it sometimes manifested itself as overzealous attention or the undermining of somebody’s authority, and was therefore hard to prove.

She said personnel who had been vindicated by her office did not often get a remedy in terms of monetary award for compensation because of the recession.

However, she was “greatly warmed” that many personnel were content with just having their grievances vindicated.