A perception study of the Ombudsman Institution from the public officials perspective

The distrust of governance is known to exist in almost every country since the Second World War. It is shown as a reason that governance is effective in every field after wars, revolutions and economic crises, and that the system of government has widened and the people have been distracted from the system by being dissatisfied with the situation. However, public trust is a very important function for both the government and the effectiveness of the political system. A fundamental assumption is that even the improvement of any organization within the governance can increase trust in governance as a whole. The way to provide and enhance public trust is through participation of people in the system of government. For these reasons, the traditional understanding of public administration has left its place to a new understanding of public administration. This public-minded conception is based on the protection of the rights and the fulfilment of needs and prospects of the people who are governed. Along with the new understanding of public administration, many new concepts and institutions have entered the literature. One of these institutions is the Ombudsman (Public Auditor Institution) which is popular today in more than one hundred fifty countries with 57 different concepts. The institution that started to be discussed academically in the 1970s in our country finally acquired a constitutional status and established in 2012. The Ombudsman is the parliamentary control body that provides the rule of law and struggles for good governance in the face of corruption. The main objective is to ensure that public institutions or officials work in accordance with law and fairness. Although the source of this institution's power is shown as parliament, public is actually the key point of its power. Decisions are not binding so its single power is 'moral sanction'. Therefore, a conscious public opinion and support is needed. However, in the academic researches conducted in our country, only the provincial researches have been conducted and the functionality and applicability of the institution has been theoretically discussed. The fact that public opinion is not being investigated about the institution is still a major shortcoming. In the first chapter of the thesis study, the concept of audit in the public administration and the ways in which management is controlled are examined. In the second chapter, the Ombudsman Institution is examined conceptually and the selected world examples are given. In the third chapter, it is discussed that the process of integrating the ombudsman institution with our management system in conjunction with the academically discussion of ombudsman institution in our country. Finally, in the fourth chapter; The effectiveness and functionality of the Ombudsman Institution have been tried to be measured by investigating the field of public officials. The survey technique, which is used as a research method, was conducted in provinces that could be used as an example from 12 regions according to the TURKSTAT statistical region classification. The reason for the selection of public officials as the target group is that it was determined in the previous studies that the public's level of knowledge about the institution is limited and that it is important in terms of the implementation of the recommendations of the institution. The results of the survey were analyzed using multivariate statistical methods. In the light of the information and findings obtained, general evaluations are made about the success, efficiency and functionality of the Ombudsman Institution in our country. After the evaluation, suggestions are made for the institution to take a more effective and active role in our audit system.