Norwegian Defense Minister Tore O Sandvik has been a driving force behind Norway’s massive military build-up in recent years. Now he needs to defend not only the country but his ministry and himself as well, after reports of messy accounting practices in key defense purchasing units.
The trouble first arose when the state auditor general reported problems in the defense ministry’s accounts and its economic management. It was difficult to literally balance the books in various units within the ministry, including its huge property division Forsvarsbygg and its purchasing unit Forsvarsmateriell.
State Auditor General Karl Eirik Schjøtt-Pedersen went so far as to brand Forsvarsbygg’s annual report for 2025 as “unauditable” because of “major weaknesses” in its economic systems. He couldn’t approve its accounts because of problems with internal control tied to an underlying database.
That followed concerns within the property division itself, which is Norway’s single largest property administrator with around 2,400 employees responsible for 13,000 state-owned buildings and other structures from historic fortresses to military bases. It exceeded its budget agreements by nearly NOK 500 million (USD 50 million), reported newspaper Dagens Næringsliv (DN), after allegedly trying to keep the overruns secret.
Last spring the director of Forsvarsbygg was transferred to another position, he’s since filed a formal complaint and is demanding his job back, and the acting director ultimately admitted to “serious violations of purchasing rules.” She admitted that the property division also failed to inform superiors at the ministry, prompting Defense Minister Sandvik to launch an investigation and even suggest that Forsvarsbygg willingly violated its own rules.
Newspaper Aftenposten recently editorialized that it’s “easy to sniff a scandal amongst all this,” but even opposition politicians in Parliament seem to understand that the huge pick-up in defense spending can lead to mistakes. More than NOK 1,800 billion is budgeted for military projects, expansion and improvements by 2036 in order to improve national defense: Old buildings need to be renovated, for example, and orders are being placed for everything from new naval vessels to tanks and submarines.
All nine parties in Parliament agreed just last week on a new defense plan and to boost this year’s defense budget by another NOK 6 billion and by NOK 121.5 billion over the next 10 years. That’s already bringing Norway’s defense spending up to 5 percent of GNP, meaning the country will meet NATO’s ongoing demands for expansion and European self-defense, without relying so heavily on the US any longer.
Members of Parliament also called in Sandvik to address the situation on Monday and he did so, saying he still can’t guarantee there won’t be more mistakes made during the huge defense expansion. “We have zero tolerance for corruption, for violations and for economic irregularities,” Sandvik said.
At the same, he cautioned, “we can’t have zero tolerance for mistakes.” The need for a “high tempo” in the “investment processes, purchasing and donations to Ukraine must be weighed up against the need for control.” Three leaders in the Forsvarsmateriell division, meanwhile, all deny charges recently filed against them of conscious corruption.
Conservatives leader Ine Eriksen Søreide stressed that when the state is spending so much money on defense, “we must have faith in the use of the money, in control and management of it.” Others also called for increased control mechanisms in the rush to improve defense, and an overall effort to limit the use of expensive external consultants.
“This is something I take very seriously,” Sandvik claimed, admitting that cases have come up that “can contribute to weaken confidence in the defense sector. I can’t guarantee we won’t uncover new mistakes … but I think today’s examination of management and control gives us good prospects for handling the money Parliament has approved in a good manner.”
NewsinEnglish.no/Nina Berglund
