In addition to the federal government administration, the AOB also monitors and controls all the regional and local government authorities in seven of the nine Federal States. Only the States of the Tyrol and Vorarlberg have their own regional ombudsman. Overall the AOB conducted 2,458 investigations of the regional and local government authorities in 2009. In comparison to the previous year, the number of investigated cases in these sectors has remained constant (2008: 2,410). Investigative Proceedings of the Regional and Local Government Authorities 2009 2008 Vienna 816 796 Lower Austria 537 528 Upper Austria 313 318 Styria 302 336 Salzburg 185 135 Carinthia 157 168 Burgenland 148 129 2,458 2,410 TOTAL It is not surprising that the most populous States, Vienna, Lower Austria and Upper Austria, occupy the top three places with regard to the number of investigative proceedings. At the same time, there is no uniform trend regarding the number of complaints. While the number of cases in Vienna, Lower Austria, Salzburg and Burgenland rose, the numbers declined in the other States in comparison to the previous year. Investigative proceedings of regional and local government authorities Regional focal points 11

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