The $137,000 per year Government Ombudsman post was advertised on Tuesday and will hopefully be filled by mid-March.

Applications will close on February 18. At that time, Deputy Governor Nick Carter said, a panel will create a shortlist of candidates who will then be interviewed for the post.

Mr. Carter said he did have some idea of who would be on the panel, but that he was unable to confirm any names at this point in time.

As the post is a new one, the panel will be under less of a time constraint than if they were searching for a replacement to an already existing post, he said. ?Ideally, it would be nice to have someone in place by mid-March.?

The Ombudsman, appointed by the Governor and funded by Government, will act as a watchdog, investigating complaints against Government and Government services.

According to Tuesday?s advertisement, the Ombudsman?s mission will be ?to provide all members of the public with access to an independent, impartial, and objective review complaints mechanism in respect of actions by the Government or its agencies?.

The service is free to the public, and the Ombudsman will send a yearly report to the Legislature and the public in general.

However the Ombudsman is barred from making any changes which are binding to Government, instead making recommendations for change where it is considered needed. If those recommendations are not followed through, an embarrassing report can then be sent to the Legislature.

The Ombudsman is also barred from investigating administrative actions taken by Cabinet Ministers or Junior Ministers, though Premier Alex Scott promised during the debate on the legislation that the handiwork of Ministers will be taken account of.

The power to amend the boundaries of who or what can or cannot be investigated was left to the Premier in the legislation.

The Ombudsman will be responsible to the Governor and the Legislature, and cannot be a person who within the last three years has served as a Senator, a Member of Parliament or a confirmed candidate for election to the House of Assembly, or hold office in a political party.