UDI boss quits – backlog of 29,000 cases (Aftenposten/Saturday)

When Petter J. Drefvelin yesterday announced his resignation as head of the Immigration Directorate (UDI), the government agency was facing a backlog of around 29,000 cases. 26,700 people are waiting for a decision on whether they will be granted a visa, residency or a work permit. An additional 500 people have yet to be interviewed by the UDI, while 2,000 are waiting to be registered in the immigration authorities’ database. "The main problem has been the large numbers of asylum seekers coming into the country at the same time as we have been given new responsibilities. We underestimated the volume of work relating to asylum applications," explained Mr Drefvelin, who claims he had already decided to leave the UDI last winter.

Minister starts clean up at UDI (Dagsavisen/Saturday)

Immediately after Petter Drefvelin announced his resignation as head of the Immigration Directorate (UDI), Local Government and Regional Affairs Minister Sylvia Brustad began the task of cleaning up the UDI’s operations. Three days ago Ms Brustad received a devastating report on the UDI from management consultants, PricewaterhouseCoopers. The report recommends a comprehensive programme to improve efficiency at the UDI, and estimates that the Immigration Directorate could increase its productivity by 20 per cent.

Minister under fire over UDI (Aftenposten/Sunday)

The opposition parties in the Storting are strongly critical of Local Government and Regional Affairs Minister Sylvia Brustad’s handling of the chaos surrounding the Immigration Directorate (UDI). They claim she should have sorted out the problems at the UDI as soon as she saw that the backlog of cases was growing. There is also a strong feeling of frustration among the UDI’s own employees, according to an internal survey. Among other things, they are unhappy about the way management has responded to threats of violence aimed at UDI employees.

Could govern with 25 per cent of the vote (Verdens Gang/Sunday)

If the three centre alliance parties together win 25 per cent of the vote at this autumn’s general election, Norway could once again be governed by a centrist coalition. In any case that is what Kjell Magne Bondevik believes. This means that the Christian Democrats, the Liberals and the Centre Party must win the backing of around six per cent more voters than the 18.9 per cent which they currently have according to the latest opinion polls.

Sampo decision could be delayed until late autumn (Dagens Næringsliv)

The opposition parties have accepted the Finance Ministry’s decision to postpone its verdict on the Sampo takeover until after the election. And several finance policy spokesmen believe that a final decision could be delayed still further – until October/November – if there is a change of government. Parties ranging from the Conservatives to the Centre Party do not want to make the Sampo affair a campaign issue.

Government goes beyond Kyoto (Dagsavisen)

The Government has announced it will not be making use of loopholes in the Kyoto climate change agreement. This means that Norway must cut its CO ₂ emissions by 1.2 million tonnes more than we have already committed to. For a long time the environment lobby has accused the Government of dragging its feet on the climate change issue. But at long last it has now won some degree of praise.

Worth Noting

• Telesales companies are facing an uphill struggle. Norway’s largest supplier of address lists has registered the names of 630,000 people who say they do not want to be contacted in connection with telesales activities. (Dagsavisen/Sunday)

• Every day 40 Norwegians suffer from acute food poisoning, according to calculations made by the National Institute of Public Health. Investigations show that 57 per cent of in-store freezers and refrigerators are not up to the job. (Nationen)
• Every six months the National Cancer Hospital refuses to treat more than 300 patients in need of radiation therapy because they do not have the necessary capacity. Those who are acutely sick are given priority ahead of those in the early phases of their illness. Doctors cannot rule out that patients may have died while waiting for treatment. (Dagsavisen/Saturday)
• Oslo’s Gardermoen Airport wants to keep what happens at the airport secret. The company is demanding that it be exempt from the Freedom of Information Act. (Dagsavisen/Saturday)
• Kjell Inge Røkke received NOK 440 million in dividends from Norway Seafoods last year. The fisheries company had pre-tax profits of NOK 1.34 billion. The enormous dividend payout comes a year after 304 investors were forced to sell their shares in a compulsory redemption action. (Dagens Næringsliv)
• While the Oslo Stock Exchange’s performance last year was only moderate, stock brokers were raking it in like never before. All told, the 1,700 employees of Norway’s stock broking firms made an average of NOK 1.3 million, while the 185 partners shared NOK 1 billion between them. (Aftenposten/Saturday)
• The Directorate of Public Construction and Property fears that ships could sail off course and collide with the proposed new waterfront Opera House in Oslo. The answer is to build an undersea earth rampart which would lead vessels into defined shipping lanes and prevent collisions. The Directorate has recognized the problem during the summer, but does not yet know how much a rampart of this kind will cost. (Aftenposten/Sunday)

Today’s comment from Verdens Gang/Sunday

Petter Drefvelin made the right decision when he chose to resign as head of the Immigration Directorate (UDI). Probably his only choice was between resigning voluntarily or being dismissed by Local Government and Regional Affairs Minister Sylvia Brustad. Mr Drefvelin is far from being solely responsible for the untenable situation the UDI now finds itself in, but it is right that his responsibility should be made visible through his resignation. Now comes the painstaking and probably very difficult task of getting the UDI back on track. A report by a firm of external consultants, which was published yesterday, confirms what has been clear for a long time. The UDI is not managing to fulfil its main responsibility in a satisfactory way; namely to carry out the Government’s immigration policy. The report is devastating for the UDI, but must be seen as a victory for the Local Government Minister. Petter Drefvelin and Sylvia Brustad have quarrelled publicly in recent months over the amount of resources allocated to the UDI. The report states that the UDI’s problems are not due to a lack of money, and points to the potential for improving efficiency by 20 per cent. The situation at the UDI is probably atypical, but we have a worrying feeling that they are a particularly unlucky example of a problem which runs right through the public service sector. It is not being run efficiently enough. A critical evaluation of other institutions would probably show that most of them have a significant potential for increased efficiency. We can only wish the Government good luck in its efforts to improve how the public services are organized.