– Industry and Fisheries Ministry has followed up this matter as part of the dialogue we are given to shareholders with Telenor. When it comes to the number of meetings and their content, it is part of our confidential own dialogue with the company, writes communications manager Trond Viken in Industry and Fisheries Development (NFD) in an e-mail.
The Ministry’s list shows several meetings
This week Aftenposten revealed that Norwegian authorities have seized documents and questioned several Telenor peaks as witnesses, after the Telenor-owned company Vimpelcom accused of having transferred 600 million to the dictator’s daughter Gulnara Karimov in Uzbekistan. Despite the fact that the questioning took place as early as March, the trade minister Monica Mæland (H) said that she knew of interrogations of Telenor peaks until now.
Although NFD refuse to disclose how many meetings they had with Telenor since the investigation of Vimpelcom started, reveals the Ministry’s own post records that have been at least four meetings. The first was held on March 14, just two days after it became known that Vimpelcom was under investigation.
Industry Minister shall have attended at least one meeting, a meeting of Telenor’s activities in Asia on 27 May.
– It is amazing that the industry minister Monica Mæland have been unaware of the interrogations of Telenor peaks and document seizures in eight months. This is no trifle, and something she definitely should have known, says Geir Pollestad (Sp), head of nutrition committee of the Parliament.
– When the ministry will not even comment publicly known things like this, so they must think himself thoroughly, he said.
Who knew what?
The opposition parties in Parliament thinks it is serious that the investigation of Telenor-owned Vimpelcom reportedly lost nutrients Minister unnoticed until Klassekampen , Today’s Business, Aftenposten and several other media over the past week has made a number of disclosures. SCSCA has demanded a full explanation from the Minister of Economic Affairs, which shall be communicated in writing to Parliament next week.
A key question committee leader Martin Kolberg (Ap) and a united opposition wants answers is Who knew what about the case, and why industry minister did not know anything.
– This case has two sides: Telenor should have been more active in providing ministry this information, and the Ministry should checked this closely. If civil servants in the Ministry has received this information from Telenor, but have not brought it to the political leadership, it is certainly something we will have an explanation, he said.
Each chair in nutrition committee is also critical of the Ministry handling of the case:
– It should have been common knowledge in the department that Uzbekistan is a minefield, and when they read about the investigation of VimpelCom Uzbekistan activities in Telenor’s annual report, they should definitely identified scrutiny. It’s in the annual report should be aroused more interest, and one can wonder if industry minister has been enough concerned with the Telenor these relevant issues, says Pollestad.
Telenor: – Have ongoing dialog
– We have an ongoing dialogue with corporate governance at NFD where we update them on our activities, without that I can provide details of what this dialogue concerns, says communications manager Glenn Mandelid in Telenor.
Nor does he have Black on how many meetings Telenor has had with the ministry, or who attends the meetings of Telenor’s side. According to Aftenposten, are usually top management, ie CEO Jon Fredrik Baksaas and Chairman Svein hills, to participate in these meetings.
Aftenposten tried all yesterday to get food contact Minister and Director General Mette I. Wikborg, but none of them wanted to be interviewed for this case. The Ministry has not answered any of Aftenposten specific questions.
snort of excuses
Professor Karin Thorburn scoffs at the suggestion that Telenor is less responsible for the transactions in Uzbekistan because it is Vimpelcom who have made transactions with, among others, the president’s daughter Gulnara Karimov.
Thorburn, professor at NHH, points out that Telenor is a large minority shareholder in Vimpelcom, which has been looking for a mobile license in the Central Asian country.
Telenor owns 33 percent of shares in Russian Vimpelcom but controls 43 percent of the votes. The other major shareholder in Vimpelcom’s Alfa Group, controlled by Russian oligarch Mikhail Fridman.
– It excuses nothing that Vimpelcom has been a kind of subsidiary here. We can not have rules that could mean an owner goes off if the illegal activity is pushed down in the system, to a subsidiary or a business where the owner still at the controls, said Thorburn.
Should get rid of shares
She has worked extensively with the government’s role as owner and responsibility.
– Corruption is illegal and must be fought by both the Norwegian government and Norwegian companies. The state must still expect to reach ethical problems when the state sits as major shareholder of companies that are very internationalized in their business. The state has its zero tolerance towards corruption, but is tied to companies that also moves into corrupt regions of the world, says Thorburn.
– Do you mean that the state, in principle, should get rid of such holdings?
– In principle the answer is yes. It will be far easier for the government to live up to their ethical goals without such holdings in such a big bank or a telecommunications company.
Background: Telenor-owned Vimpelcom may have earned 1.7 billion in bribes
Chronicle: “To say that Uzbekistan is” quite totalitarian “is like saying that it makes” pretty bad “to be boiled alive”
See the overview: Telenor is in 11 of the world’s most corrupt countries
Read reactions: Parliament MPs demand transparency on VimpelCom
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