The Association of Securities and Derivatives Advisers of Australia has launched a blistering attack on the competence of case managers employed by the Financial Ombudsman Scheme, claiming that the same staff will be engaged by the soon-to-be-launched Australian Financial Complaints Authority.The brutal assessments of FOS staff are contained in a submission to AFCA prepared by ASDAA compliance director Marija Pajeska."One of the main issues with FOS was its inability to deal with complaints in an efficient and timely manner and the fact that FOS lacked staff with the appropriate skills, knowledge and understanding to deal with complaints lodged against financial service providers," the submission claims."It is our understanding that FOS will essentially be rebranded as AFCA and the services provided by AFCA will be provided by the same staff that provided the services under FOS, except under a different set of rules."The association said it had "serious concerns" about the current staff of FOS being able to meet the requirement for AFCA to have appropriate expertise and resources to handle complaints.The ASDAA said the FOS board and its senior leadership did not have experience working in the securities and stockbroking industries, noting that six former and current FOS directors had been appointed to the AFCA board."Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it," the ASDAA asserts in the submission."It seems AFCA are just a newly polished version of FOS."The association said it believed FOS was "dysfunctional" because it employed "unqualified" case managers to form opinions on the performance of experienced and qualified securities professionals. "Just because the FOS case manager has a law degree doesn't equip them to make judgments on what a qualified securities and derivatives professional standard of advice and care should be," the association argues.An AFCA spokesperson said the authority had met with industry associations and consumer organisations to discuss the draft rules that will govern its handling of complaints."AFCA was pleased that overall the feedback from stakeholders and submissions received about the draft rules were very constructive and positive, with lots of useful suggestions and queries raised," the spokesperson said in an email."Much of the feedback and issues raised relate to the interpretation and application of the rules, rather than the rules themselves, or suggestions on minor wording changes, and clarification sought on areas such as AFCA's reporting obligations." The authority is reviewing submissions from stakeholders before finalising its rules to be released in September.