The Commonwealth Ombudsman wants Federal Agencies to be more open about their mistakes.

The Ombudsman, Colin Neave, has published a report saying public servants should be more willing to own up, and generally communicate better.

The report came after a complaint about the Pharmacy Location Program, delivered by the Department of Health and the Department of Human Services.

The document - Avoiding, Acknowledging and Fixing Mistakes: Investigation of a Complaint about the Australian Community Pharmacy Authority (PDF) – has now been released in abridged form.

Mr Neave used the particular set of circumstances arising in that program to speak more broadly about Government Agencies’ information sharing and responsibility.

“What I found disappointing in this investigation was the failure by the Agencies to work together to either fix the mistake or, after it could not be fixed, to deal openly with the complainant,” Mr Neave said.

“Even where a mistake cannot be fixed, Agencies should still take responsibility for it, explain what happened and apologise for any error.

“Few programs can be delivered perfectly all of the time. Good administrative practice considers how to recover service delivery errors and how to respond to complainants.

“However, I am pleased with the responses from both Departments to the recommendations in this report, and thank them and their staff for their cooperation during the investigation.”

He said that Agencies had responded keenly so far.