Introducing an Ethical Statement

“The introduction of an Ethical Statement for defence suppliers is an element of our work on the ethical dimension of acquisition for the defence sector,” says Defence Minister Grete Faremo.

The purpose of the Ethical Statement is to establish a duty of disclosure for suppliers to the defence sector while, at the same time, the Statement will help to promote awareness of what the Norwegian Ministry of Defence and its underlying agencies require of suppliers in order to qualify for the submission of offers for defence acquisition contracts. Suppliers who wish to submit offers for contracts in the defence sector must now disclose any information concerning the business and its employees, or others associated with the business, that may have a bearing on whether, from an ethical viewpoint, the business is fit to supply goods and services to the defence sector, or whether the business should be excluded from submitting offers on the basis of the exclusion rules that follow from the regulations governing public procurement. The Ethical Statement shall apply to all acquisitions in the defence sector that exceed NOK 500,000 in value.

The introduction of the Ethical Statement should be seen in context with the other work being done by the Ministry of Defence in this field and the recent revision of “Ethical guidelines regarding business contacts for the defence sector”.

The introduction of the Ethical Statement took effect from 1 June and the statement is available in both Norwegian and English. The text of the Ethical Statement can be found at www.lovdata.no in the Acquisition Regulations for the Defence Sector (ARF) as an appendix to Section 26.