– Appears as the “butter of the century” – VG

VG wrote Saturday about Nicolai Tang’s “dream seminar” in the United States. In November of last year, the financier invited him to a three-day stay in Philadelphia.

Tangen, who in March of this year was introduced as the new head of the Norwegian Petroleum Fund, chartered two private jets and covered hotels, food and beverage and entertainment for many of the 130 participants.

– This is very serious

Participants included Government Prosecutor Fredrik Sejersted, Deputy Manager of the Yngve Slyngstad Petroleum Fund and Minister of State Torbjørn Røe Isaksen.

Tangen paid for the trip through Sejersted, paid for a hotel, stay and flight home to Slyngstad and food and drink for Isaac.

SP leader Trygve Slagsvold Vedum believes the tensions were not in line with the sobriety on which the Norwegian civil service tradition is based.

– This is so serious that I demand that Prime Minister Erna Solberg and the Government can confirm if this is the current standard in which one, as a public servant, can be involved. Does the Prime Minister think that, then we really should have a debate; then we have to clean and tighten, says the leader Sp.

Vedum adds:

– I don’t doubt that the seminar was complete and fantastic. The point is all stress. Most people should make sure that there are no NOK 50 errors on the travel invoice. So it seems that these elite people have been involved, as something we cannot live with. This requires cleaning.

Critical to the network

You are concerned about one more thing:

– When looking at all the central figures in Norway who participated in this tour, it is also possible to question who influenced the election of Tangen as the new manager of oil funds. Then I almost have to ask Prime Minister Solberg if the then Minister of Commerce was formally or informally in the process of getting Tangen to become head of the oil fund, and why this was not part of his official calendar when the state covered part of the costs.

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– The butter of the century

Jørn Eggum is the leader of LO’s largest private sector association, Fellesforbundet.

He says he is shaken.

– We demand a full scrutiny of what appears to be the turn of the century. There is something fishy about this type of event where the financial elite buys networks in closed seminars.

Question the judgment of key community actors who participated.

– We cannot have leadership styles in Norway flying on luxury planes and eating in luxury restaurants as Tangen’s friends, while participating in the professional part as professionals with a ban on quotations, says Eggum.

– Is it allowed to attend a seminar?

– Yes it is and I don’t doubt it was great. But there is something about this network that I am very skeptical about: not sure there is a connection, but it provides the basis for the doubt. Confidence weakens, Eggum says.

Tajikistan asks for bill consideration

Deputy Director Hadia Tajik says the state agencies involved should consider whether they will eventually ask to bring the bill to the leaders they have sent on the trip to Tangen.

– The state administration gift supervisor is reasonably aware that there are limitations to the type of gifts that can be spent on public service. Although the seminar program on this tour seems extensive, it is so luxuriously nuanced that it is reasonable to request a very specific assessment of whether all or part of it should be paid to those in public office.

Whoever takes the account, she is in doubt.

– Whether the reimbursement has been taken by themselves or by the employer, depends on whether the seminar program was relevant enough to the employer and whether the expenses were reasonable, Tayik says.

SV spokeswoman Kari Elisabeth Kaski said they would also ask for an explanation.

– I am concerned about the ties, acquaintances and working methods that this case shows. We are going to ask the government to explain all aspects of this. We need to get information about the hiring process and if anyone who has been on the tour has been included in the process. We also have to get information on what linkages and enablement issues are related to Tangen, ”she says.

SMK: victory is incompetent

The Prime Minister’s Office (SMK) writes to VG that they have been informed by Government Prosecutor Fredrik Sejersted that he was invited to the seminar as a friend and not by virtue of being a Government Lawyer.

“His close friendship with Nicolai Tangen will make Sejersted incompetent in matters related to Tangen,” the Prime Minister’s Office writes in a text message.

It is emphasized that it is not the government, but the board of the Norges Bank that appoints the head of the oil fund.

Sejersted suggested to VG on Saturday that he could be incompetent on matters related to the Petroleum Fund.

Prime Minister Erna Solberg also tells VG that there are clear rules for what one can receive as a member of the government or a government employee.

– There is no opportunity to accept gifts, travel, hotel stays, meals or other benefits that are appropriate or that the donor intends to influence what we do in our work, says Erna Solberg.

– In the case of trips or seminars in the office, it must be paid by the employer in the usual way. It’s also important to have full transparency about it, says Solberg.

Commitment and sponsors

Fredrik Sejersted, who is a lawyer for the Norwegian state government on a daily basis, says he and Tangen are friends.

– Nicolai Tangen and I are old friends, and we have been there for 34 years, ever since we met in the summer of 1986 in Heistadmoen en route to service for the first time. We have been sweethearts to each other and sponsors of each other’s children. This seminar was for me a private tour, at the invitation of a good friend, Sejersted writes to VG in an SMS.

Røe Isaksen rejects

Thorbjørn Røe Isaksen attended the seminar from Friday to Sunday. Reject all knowledge of the hiring process.

– I have in no way been involved in the employment of the Petroleum Fund, which is run by the independent bank Norges, nor did I know that Tangen had landed the job before I saw it in the media, Isaksen writes in a comment to VG on Saturday .

Isaacs claims that he was on a longer trip and that he was already in the United States.

– Consequently, the Ministry paid for the trips and the hotels in the usual way because I participated as Minister of State. The invitation to the seminar and to participate in the program was recorded and processed in the Ministry in the usual way. So I have not traveled to the United States to attend this seminar.

He also claims that he brought his political adviser and that he met with the Norwegian consul in Philadelphia.

– It doesn’t happen when I’m on private trips. Nor have I spoken to anyone before, during, or after the seminar about who should get the position, and I didn’t know that Tangen was evaluated or was part of the process.

– I never “stained” anyone

Nicolai Tangen writes in an email to VG that Eggum’s claim that this was a “smear ride” falls on his own irrationality.

– First, the invitations to this seminar expired in May 2018, that is, 18 months before it was held. The job as manager of the Petroleum Fund was not available at that time. Second, no one was involved in the hiring process at the seminar. And third, I have never “lubricated” anyone in my life, that is not my way of being. This seminar and my employment have nothing to do with each other, Nicolai Tangen tells VG.

Tangen emphasizes that the seminar was not only for people from Norway.

– In total we were about 150 participants, of which 35-40 were travelers from Oslo. Most of the participants came from England, the rest from Europe and the United States, he says.

VG, through the Petroleum Fund’s information department, requested that Slyngstad obtain a response to this case. Norges Bank refers to what Norges Bank CEO Øystein Olsen told VG on Saturday night, where they reported that they would investigate whether Slyngstad’s shift falls within the central bank’s ethical rules.