While it is open to any person to make a complaint to the Standards Commission in line with the provisions of the Ethics Acts the Commission requests that all local avenues should be exhausted before such a complaint is made.
Accordingly, if a person considers that an employee or a member of a local authority may have contravened a provision of Part 15 of the Local Government Act 2001, the Commission is of the view that the matter should be raised with the local authority ethics registrar in the first instance. If a person is not satisfied with the outcome of the consideration of the matter following referral to the ethics registrar, he or she may make a complaint to the Standards Commission.