State Employees’ Ownership of Shares (NO0050)

Status quo or problem/issue to be addressed: There is no uniform regulation in the ministries' various policies regarding department employees’ ownership and trading in securities Main Objective: Facilitate the ministries’ efforts to prevent problematic conflicts of interest by clarifying the ethical and legal limits on the ownership and trading of securities Brief Description of Commitment (140 character limit): Prepare a legal clarification and specify in the ethical guidelines, which duties can be imposed on government employees in each ministry in terms of ownership and trading of securities. Ambition: Raise ethical awareness regarding the ownership and trading of securities, and clarify the legal issues that arise

6. State employees’ ownership of shares

Commitment Text:

Status quo or problem/issue to be addressed: There is no uniform regulation in the ministries' various policies regarding department employees’ ownership and trading in securities

Main Objective: Facilitate the ministries’ efforts to prevent problematic conflicts of interest by clarifying the ethical and legal limits on the ownership and trading of securities

Brief Description of Commitment: Prepare a legal clarification and specify in the ethical guidelines, which duties can be imposed on government employees in each ministry in terms of ownership and trading of securities.

Ambition: Raise ethical awareness regarding the ownership and trading of securities, and clarify the legal issues that arise

Responsible institution: Ministry of Local Government and Modernization

Supporting institution(s): Not specified

Start date: Spring 2016 End date: Autumn 2016

Context and Objectives

Norway has no standardized way to regulate various ministries' policies regarding department employees’ ownership and trading in securities. This commitment will prepare a legal clarification and update the ethical guidelines for government employees. These were last updated in 2012. In 2016, Parliament called upon the government to consider how the economic interests of permanent secretaries in ministries could be registered. The government opted, instead, to provide guidelines on how the economic interests of all government employees should be registered.^{[Note: Interview with commitment PoC Daniel Elias Quinones Møgster, Ministry of Local Government and Modernization, 4 December 2017.]}

While the commitment text is highly specific overall, the commitment itself is not clearly relevant to any OGP values. Ethical guidelines clearly address potential conflicts of interest of government employees who are also shareholders. However, the commitment text does not indicate any public facing measures to ensure compliance or increased accountability. This would have been a prerequisite if the commitment were considered relevant to the OGP value of public accountability.

The potential impact of preparing a legal clarification and updating ethical guidelines could represent a major step forward in ensuring public sector integrity. However, the commitment is limited in its ambition, since it does not indicate how compliance with the guidelines will be ensured, or whether this information will become public. As a result, the potential impact is seen as moderate.

Completion

This commitment is completed. New ethical guidelines for state employees have been published.^{[Note: https://www.regjeringen.no/no/dokumenter/etiske-retningslinjer-for-statstjenesten/id88164/. ]} Compared to the 2012 version, the newly revised ethical guidelines contain several amendments under chapter 4.2 on shareholder ownership and extra sources of income of government employees. The new guidelines clearly state that there is a potential conflict of interest for government employees who own shares in companies under inspection, or where licenses are being considered or have been granted. For instance, the guidelines emphasize how the Financial Supervision Act^{[Note: For the Financial Supervision Act, see https://lovdata.no/dokument/NL/lov/1956-12-07-1 (in Norwegian only).]} may restrict shareholder ownership in Norwegian companies among employees’ in the Financial Supervisory Authority. The contact point at the Ministry of Local Government and Modernization believes that inclusion in the action plan bolstered the guidelines’ implementation, especially when facing inter-ministerial opposition to changes in the ethical component.^{[Note: Interview with commitment PoC Daniel Elias Quinones Møgster, Ministry of Local Government and Modernization, 4 December 2017.]} Hence, the inclusion of the commitment in the action plan has added value, a perspective confirmed by Transparency International Norway.^{[Note: Interview with Guro Slettemark, General Secretary Transparency International Norway, 1 December 2017.]}

Next Steps

To make this commitment more relevant to transparency, the next action plan should consider establishing a public register of high-level state employees’ ownership.

6. State employees’ ownership of shares

Commitment Text:

Status quo or problem/issue to be addressed: There is no uniform regulation in the ministries' various policies regarding department employees’ ownership and trading in securities

Main Objective: Facilitate the ministries’ efforts to prevent problematic conflicts of interest by clarifying the ethical and legal limits on the ownership and trading of securities

Brief Description of Commitment: Prepare a legal clarification and specify in the ethical guidelines, which duties can be imposed on government employees in each ministry in terms of ownership and trading of securities.

Ambition: Raise ethical awareness regarding the ownership and trading of securities, and clarify the legal issues that arise

Responsible institution: Ministry of Local Government and Modernization

Supporting institution(s): Not specified

Start date: Spring 2016  End date: Autumn 2016

Commitment Aim:

This commitment meant to prepare a legal clarification and update the ethical guidelines related to government employees’ ownership and trading in securities. These were last updated in 2012. The commitment text does not indicate any public facing measures to ensure compliance or increased public accountability.

Status

Midterm: Complete

This commitment was completed at midterm. New ethical guidelines for state employees have been published.[Note26: New ethical guidelines, https://www.regjeringen.no/no/dokumenter/etiske-retningslinjer-for-statstjenesten/id88164/. ] Compared to the 2012 version, the revised guidelines contain several amendments under chapter 4.2 on shareholder ownership and extra sources of income of government employees. For more information, please see the 2016–2017 IRM midterm report. 

No further activities have been carried out since the progress report.

Did It Open Government?

Access to information: Did not change

Civic Participation: Did not change

Public Accountability: Did not change

This commitment was coded as having unclear relevance to the OGP values in the progress report. There are no indications that, as implemented, this commitment has changed government practice in creating openings either for access to information, civic participation or public accountability.

Carried Forward?

This commitment is not carried forward in the next action plan.