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Hurtigruten’s chief operating officer has told investigators that CEO Daniel Skjeldam instructed an employee to avoid mentioning Hurtigruten in the first case of infection. This is rejected by Skjeldam.
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The report of the external investigation following the eruption of the corona on the Hurtigruten Roald Amundsen ship was released on Thursday.
Among the main conclusions of the report are:
- Hurtigruten Cruise AS’s risk management process has been insufficient.
- Hurtigruten did not implement enough risk reduction measures to test foreign crews in Norway prior to enlistment. The quarantine rules were practiced incorrectly.
- Suspicion of infection was not followed up during travel and COVID-19 testing was not done on time.
- When Hurtigruten received positive test results on July 31, it was some time before the crisis management system was implemented.
The quarantine rules were evaluated by the chef.
The leader of the investigation, Jan Fougner, noted during the press conference that quarantine regulations have been practiced differently at the Hurtigruten Group.
He said it appears that the person responsible for evaluating the regulations was an expert chef, not a lawyer.
“It was a mistake,” he said.
As a result of the findings, the report also makes some recommendations to Hurtigruten.
Among other things, it is about assessing whether the organization’s culture supports risk management.
Jan Fougner, a partner at the Wiersholm law firm, has led Hurtigruten Cruise AS’s investigation following a covid-19 outbreak at MS Roald Amundsen.
Terje pedersen
Different versions
The report shows that CEO Daniel Skjeldam and COO Bent Martini have two different versions of what happened.
Martini explained that Skjeldam ordered him to prevent the municipality from mentioning Hurtigruten in its mention of the infection case.
Skjeldam says, however, that such an instruction was not carried out.
“The person in question was concerned about what documentation the municipality had to mention Hurtigruten all the time that it was said that FHI and the people involved in Hurtigruten believed that the infection had not occurred on board,” the report states.
According to Skjeldam, operational risk is managed primarily by operating companies and not by group management.
For the researchers, Skjeldam has expressed the group’s leadership discussions most related to risk at the strategic level.
Continued trust in Skjeldam
The press conference was opened by Hurtigruten’s Chairman of the Board, Trygve Hegnar. From the podium, he expressed that the board still has confidence in CEO Daniel Skjeldam.
– Skjeldam is an excellent man to implement the measures that will now be implemented, Hegnar said.
In a press release, Skjeldam apologizes for the company’s handling of the case.
– The outbreak of infection in MS Roald Amundsen was a serious incident. What the report describes is not good enough, he says.
– As executive director of the group, I take responsibility for what happened.
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71 infected after July trips
It was on the expedition ship Roald Amundsen that an infection broke out on board in July. A total of 29 passengers and 42 employees tested positive for the coronavirus after the ship’s voyages between July 17 and July 31.
Previously, the Norwegian Maritime Directorate had seriously criticized Hurtigruten after finding several diversions and security flaws in connection with the eruption.
On Thursday, the shipping company announced that it will stop all expedition cruises for the remainder of the year as a result of the increase in corona infection in Europe, as well as in South and North America.
The goal is to resume sailing with expedition cruises in January 2021.
