Complaints under Act on Complaints

Complaints handling procedure according to the Act No. 9/2010 Coll. on Complaints

A complaint under the Act No. 9/2010 Coll. is considered to be a filing of a natural person or legal person (complainant) seeking protection of his/her/its rights or legally protected interests he/she/it considers to have been infringed by the activity or inaction of a public authority, or pointing to specific deficiencies particularly infringements, the removal of which falls within the competence of the public authority.

Submission of complaints

The complaint shall be submitted:

• in writing, i.e. in a paper form  
• electronically with an authorization under the special regulation or sent through an access point that requires a successful authentication of the complainant; complaint made electronically without an authorization under the special regulation or sent not through an access point that requires a successful authentication of the complainant shall be confirmed within five working days by complainant´s own signature, authorization under the special regulation or by sending the complaint through an access point that requires a successful authentication of the complainant

According to the sec. 5 para. 2 and para. 3 of the Act No. 9/2010 Coll. the complaint shall contain:

• name, surname and residence address of the complainant or name, seat and name and surname of a person authorized to act on behalf of the complainant, if the complainant is a legal person   
• identification of the entity against which the complaint is addressed
• indication of deficiencies referred to by the complainant
• indication of claims of the complainant.

Postponing of the complaint  

According to the sec. 6 of the Act No. 9/2010 Coll. the Office shall postpone the complaint if

• the complaint does not contain the required particulars
• the subject of the complaint is or was reviewed by a court, law enforcement authority or is reviewed by another administrative authority
• the complaint concerns a person different from the one who submitted it and an authorization is not enclosed
• more than five years have passed from the event that is subject of the complaint as of the day when the complaint was delivered
• the complaint is another repeated complaint
• the complainant withdraws his/her/its complaint in writing or does not insist on its handling before the complaint is settled

Period for handling the complaint

The Office shall handle the complaint within 60 working days. In cases the complaint is difficult to review, this period shall be extended to a maximum of 30 days. The Office shall notify the complainant about the extension in writing.

Notification of the outcome of the complaint review

The complaint shall be deemed to have been settled by sending a written notification of the outcome of its review to the complainant.

Please note, that under sec. 3 para. 4 of the Act of the National Council No. 270/1995 Coll. on the State Language of the Slovak Republic „in official communication with the authorities and legal persons referred to in paragraph 1, a natural person or legal person shall use the state language, unless this Act, separate regulation or an international treaty promulgated in a way set down by law provides otherwise. Any person whose mother tongue is a language that meets the criterion of basic comprehensibility in relation to the state language can use their mother tongue in official communication with the authorities and legal persons referred to in paragraph 1. The authorities and legal persons referred to in subsection 1 shall be obliged to accept any document executed in a language that meets the criterion of basic comprehensibility in relation to the state language, insofar as such document has been issued or super-legalizated by the competent authorities of the Czech Republic “.