Document 1 (2025–2026) / Published Annual report to the Storting on financial auditing 2024
The review of the accounts and the follow-up of previous cases show that Norwegian public administration is consistently of high quality. This is significant for trust in the central government.
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(PDF, 7.56 MB)
The report is in Norwegian
Brief summary
- The central government’s accounts are largely accurate and of high quality!
- We have seven new cases involving criticism. –
- We have followed up on eight cases from audits conducted in previous years. We are closing all of the cases.
- Auditing works: The general trend is for the central government to act on our recommendations.
The central government’s accounts are accurate
The central government’s accounts are largely accurate. This is positive and fosters confidence in public expenditure.
We have audited
- The central government accounts, totalling NOK 2,952 billion
- 230 annual accounts for government ministries, central government agencies and other central government entities subject to accounting requirements
Individual cases
It is objectionable that Nav’s control of the disbursement of social benefits for orthopaedic aids does not fulfil the requirements set out in the National Insurance Act and the Regulation on Financial Management in Central Government. It is also objectionable that the total of invoice controls and compensatory control measures does not meet the requirements for internal control adapted to risk and materiality.
It is objectionable that the Norwegian Tax Administration does not sufficiently comply with the provisions of the financial regulations governing the prevention and detection of economic crime. It is also objectionable that the Norwegian Tax Administration does not comply with the provisions of the Tax Administration Act regarding the imposition of additional tax following tax-return reviews.
It is objectionable that, during the period 2017–2019, the Sámi Parliament granted a loan guarantee for the purchase, operation, and improvement of premises for the Sámi museum Várdobáiki AS, contrary to Section 75 of the Constitution of Norway and Section 6 of the Appropriations Regulations.
It is unsatisfactory that police districts and specialised agencies do not carry out and document all procurements in accordance with the procurement legislation. It is also unsatisfactory that the Norwegian Police have made call-offs under framework agreements exceeding the announced value of those agreements, and that they lack adequate systems and procedures to monitor this.
It is unsatisfactory that the Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training has not established procedures for assessing the overall risk level for selecting entities subject to inspection among private kindergartens and schools. It is also unsatisfactory that half of the inspections carried out by the Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training are documentation controls rather than inspections to determine whether the funds are benefiting children and pupils.
It is unsatisfactory that the Norwegian Public Roads Administration does not ensure that the taxable use of service vehicles is documented. Therefore, it is highly likely that the Norwegian Public Roads Administration has not reported all taxable use of service vehicles to the tax authorities.
It is unsatisfactory that Nav has not established access controls and database logging for the computer systems for retirement pension, disability benefits, contractual retirement pension, and parental benefits, in accordance with the requirements of the Regulation on Financial Management in Central Government.
Follow-up of previous cases
We follow up on audits we have previously reported to the Storting. This year, we have followed up on eight cases from Document 1 from 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023. We are closing all these cases:
- The Storting’s requirements for fee-based financing of public services
- Comprehensible communication in decision letters from the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund and Nav
- The Norwegian Agency for Public and Financial Management as a service provider, and compliance with reconciliation requirements in the Regulation on Financial Management in Central Government
- Withholding tax on dividends for foreign shareholders
- Information security and accessibility of personal and health data in health registries
- The Directorate of Health’s post-verification of health reimbursement claims
- New registry platform and information security at the Brønnøysund Register Centre
- National Transport Plan