Ombudsman’s wrong aim

February 17, 2012

Dear Sir,

In your February 15, 2012 issue you say that Ombudsman Arlene Brock in her annual report to the Governor and the Legislature accused the Minister of Planning of acting unlawfully in granting a Special Development Order (SDO) for construction work at Tucker’s Point. She did this not as a result of a complaint but on a personal whim arising from the environmental public furore and her mistaken belief that her job is to recommend justice and fairness and good governance.

The purpose of the Ombudsman is to investigate citizens’ complaints of bureaucratic abuse such as rudeness and unnecessary delay and she should not go off into investigations unless she has grounds for thinking there has been such abuse. It is well known that SDOs have been granted on the whim of Ministers usually if not invariably against the advice of the officers of the Planning Department and it is wrong of the Ombudsman to attack the Civil Servants for matters that are the responsibility of a Minister.

The Ombudsman answers to the Governor and has the duty to act as an impartial arbiter between Government and the individual and it was wrong of her to investigate an action taken by a Minister. She has acted as though she is answerable to no one other than herself and has done things she ought not to have done and left undone things she ought to have done.

WILLIAM M COX

Devonshire