Tolls were a political topic of contention throughout Erna Solberg’s government period from 2013 to 2021. In the same period, her husband Sindre Finnes made 219 trades in the shares of the toll company Q-Free. news’s mapping of the cases handled by the Solberg government during her reign, as well as the information Sindre Finnes gave SMK about her share transactions, shows that: The Solberg government handled more than 27 cases dealing with toll financing between 2013 and 2017, when Finnes had shares in Q-Free Sindre Finne’s shares in the toll company in 2014 were worth around NOK 644,000. Not NOK 289,000, as he stated to the Prime Minister’s office. According to Solberg, Finnes has never informed her about all the total of 3,250 share transactions he made when she was Prime Minister. However, Solberg has known about the shares in Q-Free from the beginning. In an email from Solberg’s press manager, Cato Husabø Fossen, Solberg writes that she was aware that Finnes owned shares in Q-Free, and approximately how many shares he owned. – Integrity must always be assessed on a case-by-case basis, and the significance of the individual decision for the company that is affected by the decision plays a role in an assessment of integrity. So does the degree of connection or financial interest, writes Solberg. – I have never considered myself incompetent as a result of Sindre’s shareholding in Q-Free. news has asked Finnes’ lawyer, Thomas Skjelbred, several questions about Q-Free. Skjelbred has not answered news’s questions, and declined to comment on this matter. Handled 27 toll cases as Prime Minister None of the 27 cases handled by the Solberg government were directly about Q-Free. The company is also in an industry with few players. news has sent an overview of the toll cases handled by the Solberg government to Q-Free, and asked what significance these had for the company. Through marketing manager May Gulbrandsen, CEO Trond Christensen writes in Q-Free that any financial consequences of a political decision on tolls will come when equipment is to be delivered. – Q-Free is a technology supplier. Our income depends on us winning tenders for our deliveries, which are open to competition, writes Christensen. Among the matters Christensen finds relevant for the company is the so-called EETS regulation. – As a player that manufactures and supplies equipment for road payment systems, such as toll tags and associated tag readers, we are naturally affected by several regulations in this field, including the EETS regulation. How much this means for Q-Free in Norway is difficult to specify, writes Christensen. Finnes stated too few shares In order for Solberg to assess his own integrity, Finnes sent lists of his share holdings to the Prime Minister’s Office (SMK) in both 2013 and 2014. A review carried out by news shows that in 2014 Finnes had far more shares in Q-Free , worth NOK 355,254 more than what he reported to SMK. These shares Finnes stated to have in 2013. These shares Finnes stated to have in 2014. It was not only Q-Free Finnes gave incorrect information about to SMK in 2014. A closer review and comparison with the lists Finnes has now sent to the Storting, shows several error: In the list from 2014, several companies from 2013 had been removed. Finnes had sold out of these. At the same time, news’s review shows that the lists were missing several shares and securities in both years. Among other things, 7,000 shares in Hexagon Composites, worth almost NOK 200,000 at the exchange rate of the time, were missing from the 2014 list. Other companies, such as Nordic Mining and Kongsberg Automotive, Finnes had sold out before he sent the list to SMK. But the shares he had in 2013 were still on the list. SMK was thus not informed of these changes in Finne’s share ownership. – I have never looked at these exact lists, Solberg writes through press manager Fossen that Finnes did not send SMK any new list in 2014. – What Sindre did was to sell out of some companies and thus the companies in which he no longer owned shares were removed from the original list. That is probably the reason why information on prices, number of shares and value otherwise remained the same in both lists. – I have never looked at these exact lists myself, but I have known in which companies he owned shares, writes Solberg. However, according to SMK, it was Finnes who sent the updated list to SMK. – Finnes had no obligation to report to the Prime Minister’s office which companies he owned shares in. At the request of incoming Prime Minister Solberg, he nevertheless chose in 2013 and 2014 to give SMK an overview of his shareholding, communications manager Ann Kristin Hjukse writes to news. Confronted with the response from SMK, Solberg’s press manager Fossen writes that he and Solberg have not seen the lists themselves, and have no answer as to who wrote them. Communications manager Hjukse at SMK writes that they have neither the authority nor the responsibility to monitor share trading by government politicians’ relatives. – The Prime Minister’s office cannot have a full overview of which financial and other conditions may at any time make the Prime Minister or other government politicians incompetent in the matters they have for consideration, but can provide the politicians with training and guidance in understanding and practicing the rules of disqualification, she writes.
ttn-69
Solberg dealt with 27 toll cases while her husband traded toll shares
