NSB BOARD GETS THE SACK (Aftenposten/Saturday)

Transport Minister Terje Moe Gustavsen yesterday sacked the entire board of directors of the national train company, NSB. Last week’s disruption due to a shortage of train drivers made him pull on the emergency brake. The Transport Minister’s decision comes as no surprise, though it is as delayed as many of NSB’s departures. Responsibility for the mess has finally been apportioned.

BAD PLANNING (Verdens Gang/Saturday)

"The crisis NSB has got itself into is the result of bad planning and the fact that measures have been implemented without sufficient resources to back them up," says Transport Minister Terje Moe Gustavsen in explanation of his tough decision. "About time! NSB’s board should have been sacked in June along with Osmund Ueland," says Thore Aksel Nistad, parliamentary transport spokesman for the Progress Party.

WILL NOT OPEN NORWAY’S BORDERS (Dagbladet/Sunday)

The Conservative Party wants to open Norway’s borders to immigrants from Eastern Europe, Asia and other far-flung places. Minister of Labour and Government Administration Jørgen Kosmo, on the other hand, does not want to change anything. "The Government admits that the shortage of labour is a problem. We point to measures to attract healthcare workers, we have proposed a green card system. We want to get more of the unemployed back to work and to ensure that more people stay at work longer and do not fall out of the workforce. If we succeed with all of this, it will be enough for a number of years ahead," says Mr Kosmo.

COMPLETE CONFUSION AT THE CENTRE (Dagsavisen)

The centre alliance is split over the environment. While the Christian Democrats and the Centre Party accept the Storting’s approval of gas-fired power stations, the Liberals say that it is time to force the Labour party into retreat. "This can very easily create problems for our cooperation over the budget. The gas-fired power station issue is extremely important – at least for the Liberal Party. It is very likely that we will make demands with regard to the environment in return for our cooperation on non-budget issues. I realise that I am in a minority over the question of gas-fired power stations, but that is quite different from actively rescuing a government that is a danger to the environment," says Liberal Party chairman Lars Sponheim.

ARMED FORCES FIDDLED THE FACTS (Aftenposten)

An internal report from July last year has revealed that for years the Norwegian Armed Forces have been covering up how badly trained they are. Confidential and previously classified documents reveal how both governments and the Storting have been kept in the dark. The internal armed forces report has just been declassified and sent to the Office of the Auditor General.

WAS GOING TO SELL STOREBRAND (Dagens Næringsliv/Saturday)

According to several centrally placed business leaders, Åge Korsvold was planning to sell part or all of Storebrand before he was forced to resign. These same sources claim that a sale of Storebrand’s non-life division, If, was just around the corner, and that the Storebrand board had also discussed selling the entire corporation.

WORTH NOTING

• To maintain the public’s confidence in NSB, the board of directors had to go," says Transport Minister Terje Moe Gustavsen. "I don’t like having to leave and would have liked to continue," said a visibly upset NSB chairman, Arent M. Henriksen,. (Dagsavisen/Saturday)

• The travelling public are crystal clear in their demands to the new NSB management. More frequent departures, greater punctuality and better rolling stock. The Transport Minister will probably be searching from among Norway’s first-division business leaders to find a new chairman for NSB. (Aftenposten/Sunday)

• Environment Minister Siri Bjerke did Jens Stoltenberg’s dirty work for him. Yesterday she agreed to the biggest CO2 binge of all time to secure two gas-fired power stations that nobody wants. Not even Ms Bjerke. The environment lobby is furious. (Dagbladet/Saturday)

• Director General of Labour Ted Hanisch has strongly criticised Norway’s current immigration policy. Together with Norwegian companies, Mr Hanisch wants to go to Asia and Eastern Europe himself and bring back tens of thousands of immigrants. (Dagens Næringsliv/Saturday)

• The Norwegian specialist vessel "Regalia" has now been made ready to remove the 118 bodies of crewmen from the Russian submarine "Kursk". But only Russian divers will actually enter the wreck. "Regalia" should be in position near the "Kursk" in 10 or 11 days. (Aftenposten)

• The house-related gratuity that Åge Korsvold received when he was given the sack by Storebrand is probably larger than his total salary for the six years he was the company’s chief executive. From the time Mr Korsvold began in 1994 until he was unceremoniously pushed out, he received a total of NOK 12.9 million in salary. The house he was allowed to buy for NOK 11 million has probably cost Storebrand NOK 26 million. (Aftenposten)

• One of Orkla’s largest shareholders, the cooperative insurance company, KLP Forsikring, is asking Åge Korsvold to step down as chairman when the board meets today. Centrally placed members of Orkla’s Corporate Assembly say that Mr Korsvold has no choice but to resign. (Dagens Næringsliv)

• Fish trimmings, shrimp shells and other waste from the fish processing industry could be a source of income worth billions of kroner if they are made better use of. The nutritious waste is particularly sought after as raw materials for the health food sector’s new functional foods. (Nationen)

• The Church of Norway needs eight times as many new positions as the 35 jobs the Government has proposed in the budget for next year. Over the next ten years the Church of Norway needs 2,500 new positions to be created. (Aftenposten)

• In a recent opinion poll, half of those professing to be Christian said that homosexuality is wrong. The same proportion also believe that it is wrong for homosexuals to occupy positions as officers of the church. (Vårt Land)

TODAY’S COMMENT FROM DAGSAVISEN AND AFTENPOSTEN

That NSB is now getting a new board of directors is a necessary follow-up to this summer’s change of chief executive. Public confidence in NSB has reached a record low. Dissatisfaction among NSB’s regular customers is so great that its owner – the Government – was obliged to intervene. But NSB does not only need a new board and a new chief executive. What the company most needs are new ideas and the ability to make NSB into a far more attractive alternative for commuters and the rest of the travelling public. There have been calls for the new management to be brought in from the top levels of Norwegian private industry. It is far from certain that this would be the best thing for NSB. In recent years Norwegian business leaders have been more interested in buying each other. They have not exactly been beacons of innovation and creativity. Nor is it certain that a management solely preoccupied with improving the company’s bottom line is what NSB needs. In the past 10 years, seven chief executives and chairmen have left NSB, more or less voluntarily, without any improvement in the situation. A complete re-evaluation of the whole concept, from top to bottom, is what is needed. It is not enough simply to replace the board of directors.

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