54 13. Summary While acting in the capacity of the NPM, my task is to regularly examine the treatment of persons deprived of their liberty in places of detention as defined in Article 4 of the OPCAT, with a view to strengthening, if necessary, their protection against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.125 The ultimate goal of the NPM’s visits is to encourage the respective authorities and institutions to improve the effectiveness of their measures aimed at the prevention of ill-treatment. I have been performing the tasks of the NPM since January 1, 2015. The special rules of performing these tasks are stipulated in the provisions of Chapter III/A of the Ombudsman Act, effective from the same date. The legal environment is suitable for performing my new tasks. When performing the tasks of the NPM, I may proceed either personally or through the authorized staff members of my Office. The selection of my civil servant colleagues, two physicians and two psychologists in addition to the lawyers participating in the performance of these tasks, started in 2014 by way of a public call for application. The head of the organizational unit established for the performance of these tasks assumed his position on September 1, 2014. In the absence of applicants, the two positions of physicians could not be filled. I may authorize, either permanently or on an ad hoc basis, other experts as well to contribute to performing the tasks of the NPM. Preparations for performing these tasks started in 2014: on May 26, 2014, I joined in the activities of the South-East Europe NPM Network as an observer, and my colleagues met and consulted with the staff of NPMs operating in the member states of the Visegrád Cooperation on several occasions. Within the frameworks of the project “Together Towards Good Governance”, staff members of the Department held consultations on two occasions, in 2014 and 2015, once in Brno and once in Budapest, with their counterparts performing the same tasks in the Office of the Czech Ombudsman. Although I have to perform the tasks of the NPM independently, I established, for the period of three years, a Civil Consultative Body, comprising the representatives of independent organizations, either invited or selected via a public call for application, in order to make use of the outstanding practical and/or high-level theoretical knowledge accumulated by various organizations registered and operating in Hungary in the field of treating persons deprived of their liberty. By the middle of November 2014, based on data received from the competent government organs, my colleagues had completed the list of places of detention falling under the effect of Article 4 of the OPCAT. In 2014 my Office spent HUF 30,874,586 on the preparation for the performance of the tasks of the NPM. In my capacity as NPM, in 2015 I investigated altogether 2,339 units of detention on 15 locations. Visits are carried out by groups of 4–8 persons. When determining the visiting delegations’ composition, I tried to secure the gender balance and multidisciplinarity of the group, and the involvement of an expert necessary for the protection of national and ethnic minority rights. 125 See Section 39/B, Subsection (1) of the Ombudsman Act