The first-ever ombudsman put in place to investigate complaints against the Government and Government services says she has not received as many as expected over the past few months.

Arlene Brock was appointed on August 1 2005, and in the period from September 1 to December 30 she has heard 54 complaints from people across the Island.

Her service is free and she will provide a yearly report to Parliament. She can also send special reports to shame departments who have failed to follow her recommendations although this has not been necessary yet.

Looking back over the short time that she has been in the post, she said this week: ?I had expected more complaints but what I am pleased about is that I have only received one that could be described as a little frivolous. I?m glad that I have got serious complaints.?

Although reluctant to go into specific details of these, she revealed that some of the common themes to emerge so far have been unreasonable delays, inefficiency, arbitrary decisions and a lack of ?common sense?.

However, in contrast to the experience of some of her counterparts in the other 111 countries across the globe with ombudsmen ? some of whom have been forced out of their roles by disgruntled ministers ? she has found the Bermuda government supportive.

?An ombudsman in Argentina got back to her office one day and found that the locks had been changed and the electricity cut off,? she said. ?In contrast, I have had expressions of support from the Cabinet Secretary and Premier. ?I have only found one instance of real resistance. The government departments have realised that I try to help the complainant understand when the government is doing what they ought to be doing.?

During a speech to the Hamilton Rotary Club on Tuesday Ms Brock outlined some of the background and key aspects of her job . She told the Rotarians that the most important quality for any ombudsman was independence. ?The jury is still out but I hope that it can be shown over time that I have personal independence. The ombudsman is not the adversary of the government and not the advocate for the complainant. It is my role to find out what is going on,? she explained.

Referring to the 54 complaints she has heard so far, she told the Rotarians that 23 were referred on to other agencies as they did not fall under her jurisdiction or because not all remedies had been exhausted. Five of the complaints have been closed with a result after an investigation, one has been the subject of a recommendation that the authority in question has to respond to within 20 days, and one was withdrawn by the complainant.

The others have either been declined by the ombudsman or are the subject of current preliminary inquiries or active investigations. Ms Brock added that she was looking forward to the visit of two of the world?s foremost ombudsmen to Bermuda later this month. Dr. Victor Ayeni, director of the Governance and Institutional Development Division of the Commonwealth Secretariat and Dr. Hayden Thomas, Ombudsman of Antigua and Barbuda, will give a public lecture at the Bermuda College at 7 p.m. on November 19.