Interviews to appoint a successor to Policing Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan are expected to be completed before the weekend.
The Northern Ireland Office (NIO) is hoping the successful candidate for the seven-year post will be named within the next two weeks. Mrs O'Loan has headed the agency since 2000.
It is understood up to five candidates are being considered by the NIO.
They include the outgoing Policing Oversight Commissioner, Al Hutchinson. He is the former head of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Ontario and was previously chief of staff at the Office of Oversight Commissioner until 2004 when he succeeded Mr Tom Constantine. As such he has been responsible for the oversight of the roll-out of the Patten Commission reforms of policing.
Kathy O'Toole, a former member of the Patten Commission, which recommended the establishment of the PSNI, is also thought to have submitted an application. However, she is said to be committed to her current position as chief inspector of the Garda Inspectorate. She has also served as Lieutenant Colonel of Massachusetts state police from 1992 until 1994 before being appointed to secretary at the executive office of public safety in Massachusetts.
Another candidate is thought to be John Wadham, former head of the British civil liberties pressure group Liberty. A solicitor and acknowledged human rights expert, he has served as deputy director at the Independent Police Complaints Commission in London, which examined the killing of Brazilian John Charles de Menezes in the wake of the July 7th London bombings.
The head of the Historical Enquiries Team, set up to look into the more than 2,000 unsolved killings during the Troubles between 1968 and the signing of the Belfast Agreement in 1998, is also understood to be a candidate. Dave Cox is a former senior officer with London's Metropolitan Police and also worked on the Stevens investigation into RUC-loyalist collusion.
Mrs O'Loan finishes her term at the end of the first week of November although a number of key inquiries carried out by her office are expected to report before then. They include the investigation of the RUC handling of the Claudy bombing in 1972, which is due shortly.