(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
The question is who really owns all the companies in Norway. To some extent, there has been openness about this topic for a long time. The largest shareholders at the turn of the year are published in the accounts of the companies. For more detailed lists, it has been possible to purchase a printout of the shareholders' book from the individual company.
Unfortunately, if you do a more thorough compilation, these tools do not hold. What if the person you are looking for owns small shareholdings in many companies in the same industry? It quickly becomes a "needle in the haystack" issue. You need a very good metal detector to find it.
After the country's financial journalists had spent decades with individual shareholder book transcripts, a young reporter sat in the Municipal Report and pondered a problem. He worked with an overview of the companies that supply goods and services to the municipalities, and he wanted to know if there were links between public employees and the companies that supply to the same public institutions. His question was thus 420 municipalities, many thousands of companies and many tens of thousands of people. Is it possible to investigate such a thing?
Yes, Vegard Venli thought, as the reporter called. He is an experienced user of public law, and in addition more than average computer interested. He requested access to the entire database of Norwegian shareholders, on which the tax authorities sit. The base is simply called the Shareholder Register. No journalists had ever seen this database.
What happened is worth a little book, and cannot be repeated in detail here. But a few key words are included. At first the authorities refused. Venli complained, and won. Then the Minister of Finance proposed to change the law, so that access could still be denied. She lost that match. After two and a half years, access was finally given.
What did the Municipal Report reporter do with the database? He gave it away! Of course, he also made the journalism he had planned so long. But he openly shared the data set. It was loud and collegial. Dagbladet made a number of individual cases. And eventually Technical Week also came on the field.
The Minister of Finance proposed to amend the law so that access could still be denied. She lost that match.
Technical Weekly used the database to link datasets. They linked a list of construction managers and project managers in the Norwegian Public Roads Administration with the register of shareholders of individual shareholders at the main contractors the agency buys services from. This is how they found the entire 21 construction managers and project managers with millions of shares in private contractors. Obvious and critical double roles, that is.
Vegard Venli's openness match was not a single case. In the future, the data set will be released annually. And it is now searchable online in several places. Venli was rewarded with both the Flavius Award and the Great Journalist Award for his work this year.
But you who read this can make your own disclosures on a topic you are interested in – and have now found a new and good source for the job.
Try it yourself: http://aksjeeiere.no
Tarjei Leer-Salvesen is a freelance investigative journalist, with a background from Ny Tid as well as Klassekampen, Fædrelandsvennen, Dagbladet and NRK Brennpunkt. He is also behind the web portal Innsyn.no
