On 18 November, Chief of Defense Eirik Kristoffersen received the investigation report which revealed major errors and shortcomings in the Defence’s handling of notifications. At the live press conference, Kristoffersen highlighted one of news’s revelations this year: In 2014, seven Norwegian officers on a UN mission in South Sudan were punished for buying sex and having unregulated contact with local women. Two of the officers later got jobs for the Norwegian Armed Forces abroad. One of them as recently as 2019. This despite the fact that the Norwegian Armed Forces have as a general rule that reprimanded persons should not be sent out on new international operations. Defense chief Eirik Kristoffersen reacted strongly to the revelation. He called the broadcasts “a miss” and assured that the system had been corrected. At the press conference, the chief of defense elaborated on the criticism. He said the officers should never have been sent out on new missions. He explained the dispatches by saying that the case managers did not have access to the punishments. – We have done something about that, so now we can at least follow what has happened earlier in his career, said Kristoffersen. But at the same time as the defense chief stood on the podium and criticized the dispatches, one of the officers in question had just been given a new position: as a NATO officer abroad. SEE RECORDING: This is how defense chief Eirik Kristoffersen described the dispatches during the press conference. That the officer got the job was announced internally in the Armed Forces in September this year. news has seen the announcement. The man was to start the new job in August 2023. The position was located in an important NATO country. news has requested an interview with the chief of defense about why the officer was once again given a new position abroad, despite the fact that he has previously been reprimanded and despite the fact that the chief of defense has said that the previous posting of him was a mistake. The Chief of Defense will not be interviewed. The defense knew that the officer had been disciplined. The Chief of Defense’s council was involved in the decision to give the man a new position in 2023. The council processes all applications for this type of position. The officer in question informed the council that he had previously been disciplined, according to the trade union BFO. A refs is a military response to unwanted behavior. It was in 2014 that the man received a reprimand and a fine of NOK 6,000. The background was that he had taken an unknown Kenyan woman into the Norwegian camp in South Sudan. He had met the woman at a night club. In 2014, a number of Norwegian UN officers were investigated by the military police for conditions in South Sudan. The Norwegian officers stayed in the Norwegian House in Juba. Photo: Christian Nørstebø/Forsvarets forum / Forsvarets forum The officer explained to the military police that he did not remember what happened after he arrived in the room with the woman. He denied paying her. The war prosecutor believed the officer had to be punished for two reasons: He had taken a clear security risk. The officer did not know who the woman was or had control over where she was moving. There was therefore a risk of leakage of classified or sensitive information. Taking an unknown Kenyan woman into the room, seen in the light of knowledge of prostitution in the area, could be considered questionable or burdensome. This is regardless of whether there had been a breach of the rules on prostitution and sexual exploitation or not. The officer does not get the job anyway. It was with this punishment in mind that the chief of defense criticized the deployment from 2019 at the press conference on 18 November. news has asked Kristoffersen if he was then aware that the man had again been assigned a new position abroad. The chief of defense will not answer news’s questions. In recent weeks, however, something has happened. At the end of November or the beginning of December, the officer was told: He won’t get the job after all. – Normally, only the chief of defense who can overturn news has been in contact with the officer. He does not want to talk about what happened in South Sudan or that he has been deprived of his position. Jens Jahren is a leader in the trade union BFO, and represents the reprimanded officer. Jens Jahren is a leader in the trade union BFO. Photo: Øyvind Bye Skille / news BFO is now investigating whether all the rules and procedures have been followed in the case. – He has applied for a position in an ordinary announcement and the position has subsequently been withdrawn by the employer. The background is circumstances that go back in time, and which are linked to the case that news wrote about conditions in South Sudan in 2013. According to Jahren, the officer was informed at the end of November or the beginning of December. – Did the officer inform you that he had been disciplined when he applied for the position? – As far as we are aware, the Commander-in-Chief’s Council has been informed of all the circumstances in the case and that he has previously been reprimanded. – So the council has been aware of his refs and considered that he is still qualified for this position? – He has been selected as the best qualified applicant for this position. – Do you know who is behind the fact that he will no longer have the position? – Normally, when a position is announced in the Chief of Defense Council, it is only the Chief of Defense who can reverse such positions. – Do you know if the chief of defense has been personally involved? – I don’t know. When the officer was punished, he had been out on a UN operation. This means that the regulations for international operations were applicable. The position he was assigned this autumn was a staff position in the permanent organization of Nato. Then a different set of regulations applies, according to BFO. The chief of defense will not answer news has asked for an interview with chief of defense Eirik Kristoffersen about why the officer no longer gets the job he was promised. Kristoffersen will not be interviewed. Lieutenant-Colonel and spokesman for the Norwegian Armed Forces, Per Espen Strande, writes in an e-mail to news: “On a general basis, we do not have the opportunity to comment on details of proceedings regarding personnel matters and individual decisions. The person concerned does not have an order for (…) position from August 2023.” The Norwegian Armed Forces will not answer these questions. news is aware that the Chief of Defense Council knew that the officer in question had been punished for conditions in South Sudan when they processed his application for the position. What is the reason that the Chief of Defense Council nevertheless believed that the relevant candidate was suitable for the position? What does the chief of defense think that the officer in question was on his way out on his second overseas assignment after being punished in South Sudan? When was the defense leadership made aware that the chastised officer had once again been ordered abroad? The officer in question was told that he was no longer ordered to the post at the end of November or the beginning of December. At the presentation of the PWC report on November 18, the defense chief said the officers who had been disciplined in South Sudan should never have been sent on new assignments. He explained the dispatches by saying that the case managers did not have access to the punishments. Furthermore, Kristoffersen said: “We have done something about that, so now we can at least follow what has happened earlier in the career”. Why did the chief of defense say this when one of those punished was on his way out on yet another foreign mission? Who made the decision that the officer should not be ordered to the post after all? When was the decision made? Normally, only the Chief of Defense can reverse decisions made in the Chief of Defence’s Council. Was Kristoffersen personally involved? Also read:
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The chief of defense said he had cleaned things up – chastised officer got a NATO job – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
