(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
Minister of Labor and Administration Victor D. Norman's offer to "repay" the 13.000 kroner he and his staff have spent "too much" during their working dinners fully emphasizes that the Minister does not understand what the criticism against him is about.
We – as taxpayers – do not have the slightest need to look at the lousy thousand-dollar bills. No one has accused Norman of theft or embezzlement. What he is accused of is unusually poor judgment. And he can not pay for that.
Norman has previously stated that "I have to be me" about how he works as a minister. He believes that "team building" is necessary, and therefore good dinners should be eaten. It can hardly be understood otherwise than that Norman cannot be "himself" when he now has to change course. So he can't lead the ministry in the best possible way either, and then he can't be a councilor either?
We are probably far more concerned about Victor Norman's policies than about his spending. Victor Norman joined the ministry as a super-expert minister, who was to turn the public sector and Norwegian working life upside down. Right now there is a dispute over Norman's softening of access to temporary employment – a violent attack on Norwegian workers.
But it is in the role that superstar Victor Norman in the name of efficiency and creativity has taken over the capital's best restaurants, where the team that will transform Norwegian working life has been built. There, they have hatched ideas so provocative that LO threatens to withdraw from the Working Life Law Committee and wage policy cooperation. If Norman had spent some of the kroner on dialogue with the trade union movement and employees in the public sector, rather than internal ministry navel-gazing over 1200 kroner kroner wines, we could have had a certain forbearance with the use of money. But Norman has used taxpayers 'money to fight taxpayers' interests. And then we will not be gracious.
Victor Norman's problem is not that a few restaurant bills were too large. We can live with that. The problem is a lack of humility towards the role of minister, towards those he manages and towards those for whom he makes policies. The use of money is only the symbol of the lack of humility.
Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik should instruct Victor Norman for keeping the thousands. Then he should resign the Minister of Administration on gray paper, because he has not understood what the role as Minister is about.
