Oslo City Hall, Lan Marie Berg

RÅDHUSET, OSLO (Nettavisen): The internal audit of the municipality of Oslo revealed more than 250,000 violations of the Work Environment Act.

In the wake of the crimes being discovered, the city council has been accused of advising the case and withholding the findings until after the elections.

– There is nothing to misunderstand here. The City Council department has tried to create a scandal, stated the chairman of the board, Kjersti Løken Stavrum, of the freedom of expression organization Norsk PEN.

Only four years have passed since the last garbage scandal in Oslo. Then it was the private Veireno who had the tender. Serious violations of the Work Environment Act were discovered. The head of the company, Jonny Enger, was sentenced to 120 days in prison.

The Councilor for the Environment and Transport, Lan Marie Berg (MDG), is the head of the City Council of the Energy Recycling Agency.

In the new scandal, the municipality’s internal audit has revealed 39,000 serious violations of the Labor Environment Law.

Comment: 39,000 municipal infractions without consequences?

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Important report

But Friday’s hearing on the case at the town hall will take place without a report from the Norwegian Labor Inspection Authority.

The report was ready in March. The city council wrote in a letter on April 15 that they wanted to postpone the report. This was complied with by the Norwegian Labor Inspection Authority, which postponed the report to September 1 in a letter to the City Council on April 17. The reason for the postponement by the city council was infection control considerations and coronavirus management.

But on August 18 an email arrived from the section head of the City Council’s finance department, Per Steinar Aasebø. The city council requests that the report from the Norwegian Labor Inspection Authority be postponed until the end of September.

Comment: Lan Marie Berg must take her share of responsibility for the electric scooter chaos in central Oslo

– In relation to the transfer of the main rate review from this year to September, key people in the preparation of the report will also participate in these negotiations. In order to have a good process for handling the report, the city council department requests that the report be sent by the end of September, the email indicates.

Therefore, the report has not been included in the hearing on Friday.

Red politician Eivor Evenrud reacts to the fact that the city council does not include the report from the Norwegian Labor Inspection Authority.

– Conducting a comprehensive hearing without the only “new” in the case seems like a waste of time, Evenrud tells Nettavisen.

Read more: MDG-Berg was notified of 730 offenses, still claimed they did not have an overview

She responds that the city council has requested to receive the report only five days after the hearing.

– The City Council has asked not to receive the report until five days after the hearing, a report that has been ready for six months. Why?

During the hearing, Lars Solås from the Progress Party answers questions from the council parties to the lawyers.

“It is worrying that the city council parties start the hearing by downplaying the crimes that have been discovered,” he told Nettavisen.

Reject criticism

Finansbyråd Einar Wilhelmsen (ODM) rejects that the consultation has anything to do with the postponement of the report.

– If the city council wants a new hearing when the Norwegian Labor Inspection Authority report is available, then of course we come forward to answer any questions the city may have. We look forward to giving the report a good and comprehensive treatment as soon as we receive it, Wilhelmsen tells NRK.