appendix d: summaries of selected cases 15-2. Case processing times of the country’s 15 Property Assessment Appeal Boards The Ombudsman had previously concluded investigating two specific cases on the case processing times of two of the country’s 15 Property Assessment Appeal Boards. The cases have been published as Cases no. 2011 13-1 and 2011 13-2 on the website of the Parliamentary Ombudsman and are included in the Annual Report of the Parliamentary Ombudsman, 2011. In the two specific complaint cases, the Ombudsman criticised the case processing times of the boards, which were between two and three years. How­ever, the two cases showed that these were not isolated incidences but symptomatic of a general problem. Consequently, the Ombudsman initiated a general investigation vis-à-vis the tax authorities on the case processing times of the country’s 15 Property Assessment Appeal Boards. The Appeal Centre of SKAT (the Central Customs and Tax Administration), which acts as secretariat for the Property Assessment Appeal Boards, informed the Ombudsman that the reason for the long case processing times was a tre­ mendous increase in 2008 in the number of appeals submitted to the appeal boards. The Appeal Centre had implemented a series of measures to reduce the case processing times. A very large number of case officers had been transferred to process the many appeal cases. In addition, the Appeal Centre had coordinated the case processing across all appeal boards so that all the country’s cases were pooled and the oldest processed first. The Appeal Centre had established national targets for the conclusion of those appeal cases which the appeal boards had received in 2009, 2010 and 2011. The Ombudsman stated that the targets set by the Appeal Centre would continue in the near future to result in case processing times which would be longer than acceptable. In the Ombudsman’s opinion, however, the Appeal Centre had implemented a series of absolutely necessary and factually relevant measures in order to remedy the unusual situation. The Ombudsman asked the Appeal Centre to keep him informed of how the continued process of clearing the backlog of cases was progressing. (Case No. 2011-0772-2001) 125