Dagbladet claims to be on top on Friday, September 24 that since 2017, “no one has controlled the administration of Parliament” and that the European Parliament has suspended the “parliamentary oversight body”.
this is not true claims. Parliament is audited by the Office of the Auditor General every year, also since 2017. The specific case relates to the compliance review of security work in Parliament. It is not true that the Presidency of the Norwegian Parliament stopped this review. On the other hand, it was the Office of the Auditor General itself that chose to defer the work.
Not affected by our report
The reason is that Parliament was not subject to the security law in force at that time. The Auditor General then chose to postpone the review until clarification was obtained as to how the Security Act would apply to the administration of Parliament. Clarification came in 2018. The Office of the Auditor General did not return to Parliament after that.
in all years The Auditor General’s Office audited Parliament’s accounts. This is stated, among other things, in the annual reports of the Office of the Auditor General, and the annual audit reports are available on the Storting website.
The impression has now arisen that the Norwegian Parliament is not subject to external control. It’s not correct. The Office of the Auditor General is the external auditor of Parliament. We are, and we want to be, subject to the independent oversight of the Office of the Auditor General.