DIRECTOR GENERAL OF LABOUR TED HANISCH RESIGNS

Director General of Labour Ted Hanisch resigned with immediate effect today, following revelations that employees at the Labour Market Administration systematically exaggerated the numbers of people for whom they have found jobs. Minister for Labour and Government Administration Jørgen Kosmo says it is natural for Mr Hanisch to leave, since his 6-year term of employment ends at Christmas and the search for his replacement has already begun. "I am happy with the work that has been carried out to transform the Labour Market Administration under Mr Hanisch’s leadership, but very unhappy with the practices that have become wide-spread in the organization," said Mr Kosmo.

HANISCH’S DOWNFALL SELF-INFLICTED (Dagens Næringsliv)

Director General of Labour Ted Hanisch was warned in December last year about the practice of grossly inflating the figures for the number of people who had been found jobs. But he did nothing about it until the tabloid newspaper VG published an article about it in September. That was probably a decisive factor in his downfall. After almost six years as director general, Ted Hanisch has now been forced to clear his desk. Minister for Labour and Government Administration Jørgen Kosmo refused to accept Mr Hanisch’s demand for more time to eradicate the malpractice that has been going on in the Labour Market Administration.

FIXED-TERM EMPLOYMENT CONTRACTS PROPOSED FOR TOP CIVIL SERVANTS (Aftenposten)

Recent proposals mean that more top civil service posts will be converted to fixed-term employment contracts. This will make it easier to get rid of leading public servants, like police chiefs and county governors. The incumbents will have to reapply after six years if they wish to continue in their jobs. The position of Director General of Health will also be changed into a fixed-term post if the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs gets its way. At the same time, the Ministry of Labour and Government Administration wants to stop the 19 county governors from keeping their jobs "for life". The Ministry is planning to present a proposal introducing a fixed term for the county governors sometime before the end of the year.

KGB HAD CODENAME AND DOSSIER ON STOLTENBERG (NTB)

According to information acquired by NRK’s television documentary programme Brennpunkt, current prime minister, Jens Stoltenberg, had contacts with a Russian intelligence officer in the early nineties. The KGB also gave him a codename and started a dossier on him including personal and political information. Deputy Chief of the Police Security Service Stein Vale confirms that Mr Stoltenberg did have a codename, but rejects the notion that Mr Stoltenberg acted improperly. "Jens Stoltenberg fully complied with our requests, and at no time did he do anything irregular," says Mr Vale.

BRUSTAD DID NOT HALT REPATRIATION (Aftenposten)

Despite saying that the interests of homeless families would be taken into consideration, Local Government Minister Sylvia Brustad did not instruct the police to halt the repatriation of Kosovo Albanian families with small children. The police asked last week if they should do so, but were told to continue. Only yesterday did the police receive word that they were to halt all repatriation activity until further notice. "Ms Brustad’s comments last week did not constitute a clear instruction to stop the repatriation of families to Kosovo," said Frode Forfang, head of information at the Directorate of Immigration (UDI).

WHOLE OF RETURN ON INVESTMENT FROM PETROLEUM FUND SHOULD BE USED (Aftenposten)

Ådne Cappelen, head of research at the Central Bureau of Statistics, has proposed linking the use of Norway’s oil revenues to the return on investment from the Norwegian Petroleum Fund. This would mean spending NOK 8 billion more than the Government has proposed in the budget for next year. Norwegian economists are now divided into two conflicting camps with regard to using more of the country’s oil wealth next year.

NO CONFIDENCE IN NRK MANAGEMENT (Aftenposten)

The board of directors of NRK, the Norwegian public service broadcasting company, has rejected management’s cost-cutting plans. NRK’s house union says it has lost confidence in its own management. The unions within NRK are highly critical of the way chief executive Einar Førde and the rest of his senior management team have handled the company’s budget. Severance packages worth several million kroner could make it impossible for NRK to cover this year’s huge deficit through cuts in next year’s budget. NRK hopes to balance its troubled books by cutting 300 jobs and hoping that Norway’s national football team does not qualify for next year’s World Cup soccer competition.

EMPLOYEES FEAR A BUY-OUT (Klassekampen)

Orkla could prevent the US giant, Alcoa, from gaining control of Elkem. Employee representatives are concerned that short-term Orkla investors, such as Christen Sveaas, will sell to the Americans. Alcoa is looking to secure 36 per cent of Elkem’s shares. The employees fear for the 1,200 jobs at Elkem’s Norwegian foundries if the Americans take over.

WORTH NOTING

• The Christian Democrats say no to a coalition including the Progress Party. Christian Democrat leader Valgerd Svarstad Haugland maintains "quite outspokenly" that a government coalition between the two parties in the next Storting is out of the question because the political distance between them is too great. (Aftenposten)
• The Labour Party has little hope of a budget alliance with the Christian Democrats. "The distance between us is just too great. We are, perhaps, more in disagreement that we have previously appeared, says Christian Democrat leader Valgerd Svarstad Haugland. (Dagsavisen)
• Gaz de France has signed an agreement with Statoil giving the company a stake in the offshore oil and gas field off Hammerfest in the north of Norway. This is the second time the French gas company has flirted with Snow White. The first time, the French advances were brusquely rejected by then Petroleum and Gas Minister Marit Arnstad.
• Norway’s rural districts fear that a large number of the country’s short-runway airfields may be closed. It costs the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) NOK 300 million each year to keep the airfields up to a safe standard. But the CAA does not have the money. The Government has announced its intention to cut almost NOK 500 million from the CAA’s budget over the next four years. The consequences of this cut-back will hit those people who are most dependent on air transport. (Nationen)
• In future doctors will not have a monopoly on the right to sign people off sick. From 1 July next year, a pilot project will start in three counties. Under the new scheme osteopaths and other manual therapists will also be able to sign people off sick for up to eight weeks. (Dagsavisen)

TODAY’S COMMENT FROM DAGENS NÆRINGSLIV

Director General of Labour Ted Hanisch has had to pack up his belongings and move out of his office. There seems no end to the procession of disgraced chief executives. Jørgen Kosmo, Minister for Labour and Government Administration, would not accept Mr Hanisch’s demand for more time to clean up the statistical mess at the Labour Market Administration. In fact yesterday he was sharply critical of the internal practices revealed by the tabloid newspaper, VG, and which were confirmed by a report from the independent certification company Det Norske Veritas last Thursday. Employees of the Labour Market Administration have inflated the figures for the number of people for whom they have found jobs by 25-30 per cent, which must represent the strangest form for statistical fraud in modern Norwegian history. If we are to believe Synnøve Kitdal, the leader for those Labour Market Administration employees who belong to the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions, the practice of exaggerating the figures can be explained by the fact that the organization has been setting targets since the mid-nineties, and that this has led to the growth of a culture that has become deep-seated. The whole thing is strongly reminiscent of the former Soviet Union’s production planning system, where fulfilling quotas was more important than the reality.

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