In recent weeks, news has written about a number of warning cases in the Armed Forces. The handling of the alerts has received sharp criticism. The criticism goes on warnings if not taken seriously and which do not have consequences. The Armed Forces now admits errors in its own notification routines. It appears in a status report that Chief of Defense Eirik Kristoffersen handed over to Minister of Defense Bjørn Arild Gram (Sp) today. Here, the Chief of Defense, Eirik Kristoffersen, admits that in some cases it has had too few consequences for those involved in matters worthy of criticism. – We have a potential for improvement. We want to work further with this, and therefore we have now requested an external evaluation of how we will handle notification in the Armed Forces, says Chief of Defense General Eirik Kristoffersen to news after he handed over the report to the Minister of Defense. – All this will make us better in the fight against what I call our inner enemy, ie bullying and harassment, says Kristoffersen. Will ensure equal treatment The Chief of Defense also adds that the Armed Forces must follow up and ensure that notification cases against employees are equal, regardless of rank. In addition, he admits that whistleblowers have received poor follow-up and information during the process. People have not been told where the case stands and what measures are being taken due to too strict internal privacy rules. – What I am most sorry for is to those whistleblowers who do not feel that they have received good enough information, and that their case has taken too long. This applies to very brave women who have appeared in the media and who in many ways have lived in a kind of vacuum. Here, the Armed Forces has been too poor at informing along the way, says Kristoffersen in an interview with news. Minister of Defense Bjørn Arild Gram (Sp) received the report today. Photo: Kristin Humstad / news In light of the failure of the routines, the Chief of Defense will order an external evaluation of the entire warning system in the Armed Forces. The evaluation will be done with the support of, among others, the well-known investigator Jan Fougner. A number of measures have also been implemented to improve the notification routines pending the evaluation. – It is a wise decision that will be able to give the Armed Forces a better knowledge base for implementing further measures. It must be safe to notify of undesirable events. The Chief of Defense has taken this matter very seriously, says Minister of Defense Bjørn Arild Gram (Sp) in a press release after the report was handed over. Unclear about assessment of working conditions Several of the cases that have appeared in the media have shown that there have been no consequences for defense employees who have been involved in matters worthy of criticism. In today’s report from the Chief of Defense, it appears that there have been ambiguities related to whether the Armed Forces as an employer can react. In particular, it is pointed out that managers have refused to consider dismissal if an employee retains the security clearance. This turns out to be wrong, according to the status report. The same applies when an employee has been convicted in a civil criminal case. – We see that the consequences are studied differently from place to place in the Armed Forces and that the Armed Forces does not use the full range of opportunities we have. If a case has been reported to the police, it has not always been followed up in the employer track with, for example, dismissal, says Chief of Defense Kristoffersen. The pressure for lies news has previously written about Kristine Solhaug. After her immediate superior had driven down the road intoxicated, he tried to get her to lie to the police. Solhaug notified the Armed Forces of the case. When the case was dealt with in the battalion where she worked, it was described as being of a “private law nature” and “where the employer is not a party to the case, but is affected”. Kristine Solhaug warned of pressure from her immediate leader. Photo: Rune N. Andreassen / news The leader who pressured Solhaug was convicted of drunk driving. The defense allowed the man to continue working as a major in a significant position at Bardufoss. The leader himself has made it clear that he disagrees with the verdict, and will try to get it resumed. The Chief of Defense says that they have reviewed all cases that have been mentioned in the media, and that there may be further consequences for those involved. – We have looked at all the cases that have been in the media. What the consequences will be now lies with the latest assessments by the army, says Kristoffersen. Has reviewed Following news’s previous revelations, Chief of Defense Eirik Kristoffersen announced that they would review all whistleblowing cases again. Minister of Defense Bjørn Arild Gram (Sp) told the Storting that he was serious about what came out. The Minister decided that the Armed Forces, through Chief of Defense Kristoffersen, had to give the government a report on the situation and how they will handle the matter before the summer. Mandate for reporting on notification cases This was the mandate from the Minister of Defense’s assignment to the Chief of Defense to review the notification cases and personnel matters in the Armed Forces: «The Minister has asked the Chief of Defense to return before the summer with a report on how the cases are followed up. The Chief of Defense is asked to provide an overall assessment of the situation with regard to notification cases updated by the media, including a review of how the notification institute is organized and notification processing is practiced, how completed cases are followed up by the line (management and HR), and how the Armed Forces as employer after a notification case (employer’s duty of care). This also applies to cases involving military officials. The Chief of Defense is asked to report on established practice, which measures have been implemented and which measures are planned to be implemented in the short, medium and longer term. ” The report, which has now been submitted by Chief of Defense Eirik Kristoffersen, has reviewed open and closed cases from all the Armed Forces’ departments two years back in time, and warnings against flag officers back to 2018. The review of warnings against flag officers showed that one case was not handled well enough. legal action against the person who has now left the Armed Forces. The other cases were not found to be worthy of criticism. The review of other cases found this about consequences in 2021: 1 person was dismissed 3 redundancies 37 cases ended with agreements entered into amicably. The defense from the last two years. Among them, warnings have been received aimed at 17 people who are flag officers – ie top leaders in the Armed Forces. Type of cases news has seen warnings on in the Armed Forces Here are several topics covered in warnings news has seen the content of: bullying and sexual harassment sex with subordinate allegation about leaders pushing unpleasant cases under the rug relationship with others in the Armed Forces outside of marriage violations of rules on security clearance where the leader let people work with things they were not cleared for failure to handle wet shots leader who received valuable gifts leaders who let the subordinate leader continue in the Armed Forces despite the verdict in civil case leader as employed son / person in close family in position cheating with travel bills drunk and drunk driving Trade unions believe that alerts to top managers are not necessarily always handled well enough. Jens Jahren, who is the leader of Befalets Fellesorganisasjon (BFO), has previously stated this to news. Leader of BFO, Jens Jahren, says that the increase in alerts in recent years in the Armed Forces is a major challenge. Photo: Øyvind Bye Skille / news – We see that the consequences come very quickly when warning people at a lower level, but we see that there are not many consequences when warning someone at a higher level.
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The Armed Forces admits failure to report – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
