On the road with the ombudsman: “The municipality is in a burnout”

According to Amsterdam ombudsman Munish Ramlal, the municipality of Amsterdam is struggling with a burnout. He calls the municipality a ‘burned-out bureaucracy’ in his 2023 annual report, released today. Civil servants often want to help, but are unable to do so due to ‘systemic problems’. Last year, the ombudsman received 1,200 complaints about Amsterdam. We passed two of these bureaucratic fires.

We get into the ‘ambulance’ – the ombudsman’s car – to go to the first case. The Amsterdam resident in question has a disabled parking card and is in a disabled parking space, but continues to receive fines. “It drives me crazy,” he told the ombudsman. He says that he has already received eighteen fines this year. “How many I had last year is countless. If this continues, I doubt whether I want to stay in Amsterdam.”

The Amsterdammer objects time and time again and is always proven right. Yet the problem is not solved. “It still takes me fifteen minutes per objection,” he says.

According to the ombudsman, it is a perfect example of what often goes wrong at the municipality. “The man should not be able to get a fine at this place, so something is going wrong in the system. He then has to go after it and ask the municipality what is going wrong, but no one knows. Everyone is doing their best , but certain problems remain.” And this creates a burnout bureaucracy. “It not only costs time for this resident, but also for the officials. You should actually solve the problems at the core.”

The ombudsman has set several action points in the annual report. For example, he believes that Amsterdam should talk to the government about all the tasks it has been given and should stop taking on new tasks if they seem impossible to carry out. “Due to decentralization in 2015, municipalities have had too much on their plates,” says Ramlal. “Amsterdam is the capital and can take the lead by starting the conversation.”

Emergency number

Ramlal also advocates, among other things, an emergency number. “Just like the doctor has.” According to Ramlal, the municipality could, for example, add an option when you call 14-020. “If you have an emergency, press 1,” he writes in the report. Or will everyone not press that button? “Anyone in an emergency can call and if it is not an emergency you will be back in the queue. Solved!”

On to the next. That is also a resident with a disabled parking card, although that does not surprise Ramlal. Although he receives many complaints about youth care, income issues and education, most complaints concern parking. “And most of those complaints are about disabled parking cards and spaces.”

This lady’s bureaucratic misery started when she forgot to renew her parking ticket. She did not receive the reminder that the municipality was supposed to send anywhere. Even though the municipality admitted that she was wrong after several attempts, the lady still received a fine. “You hit a wall,” she says. But what she finds worst of all is that it feels like she is being dismissed as a liar.

Ramlal also gives advice to the municipality about this: “One in a hundred residents complains. So take that one resident who still takes the trouble to complain very seriously.”