Ombudsman news

Lauren Ritchie of the Orlando Sentinel writes a great piece on Florida State's removal of their Long-term Care Ombudsman and legislation to reduce the power of the Ombudsman programme:

The Property Ombudsman, Christopher Hamer, is using his 2010 Annual Report to make a fresh call for more control over the actions of residential lettings agents.

The UK government has made it clear that it will not introduce any new laws that could lead to better protection for landlords and tenants from those agents who fail to treat consumers fairly and who potentially can put consumer money at risk.

The findings of the four-volume inquiry into Australia's Macquarie University is said to underline the need for a federal university ombudsman.

The adverse findings and concerns of the ICAC-supervised investigator over the administration of the university's Centre for Policing, Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism is one serious matter; the lack of response by university management, documented in detail by the investigation, is arguably even more serious.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) will introduce tough measures - including suspension or cancellation of licences - against financial advice groups that have turned complacent on their compliance and dispute resolution policies.

Coming under fire this year, in what is referred to as a 'lite touch' business model, are licensees which:

Senator Lois Wolk, D-Solano, a longtime advocate for the protection of seniors in California, introduced legislation recently to strengthen the state ombudsman program that works to protect residents in long-term care facilities.

The ombudsman for Canada's federal taxpayers is more likely to get calls once assessment notices arrive, but tax filing time is often when the seeds for conflicts with the Canada Revenue Agency are planted.

Taxpayers should make sure they know their rights and start keeping records of any communication they have with CRA, said Paul Dube, a University of Windsor law school graduate who was named Canada's first taxpayer ombudsman three years ago.

Source: Windsor Star

As courts all over the world are overwhelmed with cases, an ombudsman can reduce that overload, said European Ombudsman P. Nikiforos Diamandouros, who has recently reviewed the Turkish ombudsman bill, which will come to the agenda of the next Parliament following the June 12 general elections.

“Judges usually don't like the ombudsman. I spend a lot of time visiting courts, having meetings with the judges. I tell them what I do and they study what I do,” he told Today's Zaman for Monday Talk.

The European Ombudsman, P. Nikiforos Diamandouros, announced, on 15 March, that he has started to publish information about the inquiries he opens.

Source: Europolitics

In the US, the post of Ombudsman is commonly found within the structure of a newspaper company. Recently, The Washington Post recruited a new Ombudsman and here is what the Ombudsman found after a week on the job:

"Welcome to complaint central; take a number.

"That's how I feel after a week on the job as The Post's new ombudsman. My predecessor, Andrew Alexander, told me to expect this, but it's not the same thing as actually listening to the dozens of daily phone calls and sifting through the hundreds of e-mails from Post readers.

The state government of Victoria in Australia may dump an election promise to create an independent watchdog to weed out shonky private colleges preying on international students in what would be Ted Baillieu's second education backflip since coming to office.

The Coalition had promised to create a tertiary education and training ombudsman to hear complaints from students and investigate all facets of the international education market, from substandard courses and colleges to poor-quality housing.