The Office of the Auditor General has investigated whether the Norwegian Public Roads Administration controls measures with significance for safety along Norwegian roads.
– The safety of national roads is not adequately monitored by the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, Auditor General Per-Kristian Foss concluded at a press conference on Tuesday morning.
NRK was able to reveal recently that errors or deficiencies with car protection have claimed 76 lives since 2005. NRK asked the Auditor General if we can know that Norwegian roads are safe, when the Norwegian Public Roads Administration itself does not seem to have an overview:
“No, we can not know,” replied Foss.
– We are used to the fact that what the Norwegian Public Roads Administration sets up is a patent. But when the inspections show that they are not, it reduces traffic safety, the Auditor General replied.
– I have no comment on the Auditor General’s statement, writes division director Bjørn Laksforsmo to NRK via the communications department.
Read the Norwegian Public Roads Administration’s comments on the Office of the Auditor General’s report further down in the case.
The Auditor General’s self-protection with errors and omissions can give a serious outcome.
– One can only with imagination imagine what it can mean with a collision with a railing that is not mounted correctly. If the safety is not good enough, you can end up in the sea, the Auditor General elaborated.
Missing in the routines
The report from the Office of the Auditor General states that the Norwegian Public Roads Administration does not have a sufficient overview of the condition and safety level of installations and equipment in the road network:
- General inspections are mainly planned and carried out, but the results have only been partially followed up.
- Individual and main inspections are carried out to a small extent, and there is a lack of common guidelines for these inspections.
- Both the Norwegian Public Roads Administration and representatives from various parts of the Norwegian Public Roads Administration stated to the Office of the Auditor General that there is a lack of common detailed guidelines for individual and main inspections.
This can have an impact on traffic safety, the Office of the Auditor General points out:
“This means that the Norwegian Public Roads Administration does not have an overview of the condition of or the level of safety of all the objects in the road network, and they thus do not get to determine what kind of measures are needed,” the report states.
Points to organization
In an e-mail sent to NRK via the communications department, division director Bjørn Laksforsmo writes this about the criticism from the Office of the Auditor General’s report:
– The Norwegian Public Roads Administration relates to the Office of the Auditor General’s report and agrees with the Office of the Auditor General’s remark that instructions, responsibilities and follow-up of inspections in 2019 have not been good enough.
Laksforsmoen also writes:
– The Office of the Auditor General’s report points to the need to have a good overview of the condition of national roads, so that we can take care of societal values, safeguard traffic safety and tackle climate challenges. The report shows that the routines for inspections and the follow-up of these are not good enough, and this is something we are working on.
Division Director Bjørn Laksforsmo.
Photo: Gunhild Hjermundrud / NRK
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From New Year, the Norwegian Public Roads Administration was reorganized. Until then, five regions in the Public Roads Administration each had their own responsibility for the road network. Today, the Norwegian Public Roads Administration is instead divided into national professional divisions. Laksforsmo heads the division for operation and maintenance.
– The Office of the Auditor General’s investigations have been carried out in the former regions. As a result of the reorganization that was carried out from the new year, we have gathered the responsibility for operation and maintenance in a joint division, to strengthen the efforts in this area, says Laksforsmo.
NRK’s review of the Norwegian Public Roads Administration’s own reports following fatal accidents along Norwegian roads in the period 2005-2008 shows that several errors have been repeated in accidents, year after year.
Gives NRK recently confronted the division director with the recurring errors in the reports after 71 fatal accidents in which the crash barrier contributed to the loss of life, the division director also referred to the organization:
– I think it is correct to say that we in the previous organization were not as good at taking in the learning from the reports, said the division director.
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