A second hearing before the Parliament’s disciplinary committee on the NAV welfare scandal ended with no single individuals being held personally responsible for unjust prosecution of alleged welfare cheats. The head of a commission that probed the scandal concluded that no one acted against better knowledge.
Finn Arnesen, who headed the government-appointed commission, has already unleashed harsh criticism of systematic negligence on the part of NAV workers, state prosecutors and government officials. They were all, however, just following standard practice that began during the former left-center government and continued under the current Conservatives-led government.
Much of the hearing centered on a report from 2014, written by an inter-ministerial group, that stated several times how Norway can’t stop recipients of welfare benefits from traveling to other countries within the European Economic Area. At least 86 people were, however, and even unjustly sentenced to prison since 2012.
The government has continued to withhold the actual report from the committee, nonetheless insisting that all “relevant information” has been shared. No one denies the injustice, both the government labour minister and head of NAV have apologized and promise that all cases of injustice will be overturned, and compensation paid out.
newsinenglish.no staff