The Charity Commission has awarded its independent complaints review function to two new providers, ending its ten-year contract with Jodi Berg.

The Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution and Complaint Handling & Investigation Associates have been appointed to share the function for 12 months.  Their services will be made available to complainants who are dissatisfied with the outcome of the Commission’s internal complaints procedure.

Berg stepped down as the independent complaints reviewer in December 2010 after ten years in the role.

A Commission spokeswoman said the decision to change provider and to appoint more than one was made “in the interests of cost efficiency”.  It would not say how much the contracts are worth.

Under the new system, one person from the panel of complaint reviewers will be called upon each time a new case needs to be investigated.

The first case to be reviewed by the new reviewers will be that of Jon Danzig, a former volunteer at the Pituitary Foundation. The Commission gave Danzig a consolation payment of £100 last year after admitting “serious deficiencies” in the handling of his complaint about the Foundation’s treatment of him.