appendix d: summaries of selected cases The Ombudsman agreed with the local authority’s decision to waive the fee. He stated that even when a reminder fee is warranted, the deadline for payment must have expired and the citizen must have been informed how to pay the due amount to the local authority. The Ombudsman also stated that, as the local authority could not prove that a giro transfer form had been sent to the man or that information had otherwise been provided on payment method and deadline for payment of the surplus housing benefit, the local authority had to bear the risk of evidential uncertainty. Consequently, the local authority could not impose a reminder fee on the man. (Case No. 2009-3939-009) 6. Local authority managers not allowed to comment ­adversely on budget cuts as private citizens. Freedom of speech. The Ombudsman contacted a local authority because of an article on the Internet according to which the local authority had written to its managers that they were not allowed to comment adversely on planned cut-backs, even if they did so as private citizens. On the basis of the local authority’s reply, the Ombudsman decided to investigate the matter on his own initiative. The Ombudsman agreed with the local authority that the wording of the local authority’s instruction to the managers was regrettable. The Ombudsman also agreed with the local authority that the instruction could justifiably be read as an instruction with the intent of circumscribing freedom of speech for the local authority managers. The Ombudsman noted that the local authority has expressed its regret to all the managers at the wording of the instruction and had also done so on the local authority’s website. The local authority stressed that the intent had not been to circumscribe freedom of speech for either managers or staff. (Case No. 2010-1682-8111) 7. Local authority’s visiting restrictions for rela­tives of nursing home resident were a decision A woman complained to the Ombudsman that she and her family had had their access to visiting her father at a nursing home owned by the local authority 97