Ombuds Office

The Ombuds Office of the ETH Board is an independent body responsible in a subsidiary capacity for dealing with reports of illegal and unethical conduct observed by members of the ETH Domain in the course of ETH Domain-related activity. Subsidiary capacity means that, whenever possible, reports must initially be made inside the two Federal Institutes of Technology or the four research institutes, first to senior bodies or, if this is deemed unreasonable, to the bodies responsible for dealing with such reports in the institutions concerned.

This applies under restriction of art. 22a of the Federal Personnel Act (Bundespersonalgesetz): the employees are obliged to report all officially prosecuted crimes or offences which they have discovered during their official work or which have been reported to them to the criminal prosecution authorities, their superiors or the Swiss Federal Audit Office (SFAO) (www.whistleblowing.admin.ch). Employees are then entitled to report to the SFAO any other irregularities that they have discovered during their official work or that have been reported to them.