Mehl has said that she will only give an account of the case when the external investigative committee has finished its work on 1 March. That is not good enough for the government’s permanent budget partner SV. SV’s Andreas Sjalg Unneland believes that Emilie Enger Mehl must appear in the Storting as soon as possible. Photo: William Jobling / news – That is a bad assessment. The Minister of State has a standing invitation from the Storting to come and inform about the matter. She should follow it up, says SV’s justice policy spokesperson Andreas Sjalg Unneland to news. – We expect Mehl to come to the Storting as soon as possible, continues Unneland. He gets the full support of FRP deputy leader Hans Andreas Limi, who says “it is only natural that she comes to the Storting now”. The case in summary Sofie Nystrøm, director of the National Insurance Agency (NSM), has resigned due to an illegal loan agreement of NOK 200 million. The loan is a breach of current laws and regulations, including key points in the budget and financial regulations. Minister of Justice and Emergency Preparedness Emilie Enger Mehl (Sp) confirms that serious mistakes have been made and that the government is now working with the Ministry of Defense to survey the matter. Law professor Mads Andenæs at the University of Oslo expresses shock at the case and believes it is a matter for Økokrim. The loan was taken out in connection with NSM’s move to new premises in Fornebu, with unfavorable terms such as an interest rate of 10 per cent. The government has initiated a review of the loan agreement and the circumstances surrounding it, and has instructed NSM to stop all payments to the loan agreement. The summary is made by an AI service from OpenAI. The content is quality assured by news’s journalists before publication. The opposition was deprived of the opportunity to put Emilie Enger Mehl on the wall just before Christmas. She should have met when the Storting on 20 December granted the 200 million kroner that the government requested to redeem what the Minister of Justice himself has described as an illegal loan. But just before the Storting debate was to start, it became known that Mehl had contracted corona and could not attend. Considering measures SV believes it will be too long to wait until after March 1, which is the deadline for the investigative committee led by former central bank governor Svein Gjedrem. Ideally, Unneland would like Mehl to the Storting during the week. – If she does not come, then we will consider other measures to get her here. This is a very serious matter, and the Storting has not received any information on the matter. The information has come piecemeal and divided, he says. Unneland says it is too early to specify what kind of measures SV is considering, but for example it could be about questions in question time or in own interpellation debates. Hans Andreas Limi in the FRP believes it is even more relevant to hear from Mehl now than it was when the party first asked her to explain the matter in mid-December. – Then I think not least of the sensational letter from the Ministry of Finance, says Limi. In the letter, the Ministry of Finance writes that closer follow-up at an earlier stage from agency boards, i.e. the Ministry of Justice, could have “contributed to uncovering and possibly preventing violations of the rules in the case.” Fell ill When Mehl fell ill and could not speak in the Storting on 20 December, SP leader and finance minister Trygve Slagsvold Vedum instead had to answer all the questions from a critical opposition. – A breach of rules has been uncovered in NSM. And the Minister of Justice has tackled that forcefully, said Vedum to news on the way into the parliamentary session on 20 December. – She has done what she can to obtain all the information and set up a very competent committee led by Svein Gjedrem to go through the whole case, said Vedum. After the debate in the Storting hall, the opposition parties Høyre, SV and Frp expressed that they were not satisfied with the answers from the finance minister. Among the questions they want answers to is whether the Minister of Justice had a good enough overview and control over the dispositions of NSM and the resigned director Sofie Nystrøm. – Rart news has asked the Minister of Justice to answer whether she will ask to come to the Storting to give an account of the case. In a written response, the ministry points out, among other things, that the Storting has been informed through the budget proposal that was considered in December. – As the Minister of Justice has stated, it is important that all sides of the case are illuminated. We will continue to inform the Storting, says the response from the Ministry of Justice. Emilie Enger Mehl herself wrote in a letter to the Storting’s Control and Constitution Committee on 19 December that she wants to wait for the external investigation before she comes to the Storting to give an account. – I will return to the Storting after the committee has presented its report, she writes. CRITICAL: FRP deputy leader Hans Andreas Limi believes the development in the NSM case actualizes the need for an explanation from the Minister of Justice. Photo: Hanna Johre / news It is this reasoning that SV describes as a “bad assessment”. – It is strange that the Minister of State is showing so much patience in such a serious matter. It makes sense to have an investigation, but I assume that there is a lot of information that can be presented to the Storting now anyway, says Unneland. Here, too, SV is in line with Frp: – It is important that the Storting receives collected information about the case from the minister, although it may be right to wait for the investigation before we draw a final conclusion, he says.
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– Bad assessment – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
