– This is not exactly a joy for the police, or the authorities in general, says Lægreid, who is professor emeritus at the Department of Administration and Organizational Science at the University of Bergen.
He is referring to the ongoing passport crisis, which has led to very long passport queues across the country.
The situation is so critical that the police have asked people to wait to book a holiday abroad until they are sure they get the passport on time.
Now they also tighten the possibility of buying an emergency passport.
– A minimum requirement one should be able to set for the government is that they are able to give citizens a passport when they need it. One can wonder what they have been doing in the police, when they were not able to predict this development, says the professor.
The Norwegian Police Directorate replies that they have taken several measures to prevent the passport crisis. Read the full answer further down in the article.
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Asks questions about supplier selection
It is the French-owned company Thales that has problems producing enough passports and ID cards for Norway and other European countries.
The reason is that the pandemic and the war in Ukraine disrupt the supply chain of important materials used in production.
Lægreid nevertheless believes that several questions can be asked in the Norwegian authorities’ handling.
NOT WELL ENOUGH PREPARED: UiB professor Per Lægreid believes the passport situation shows that the authorities probably lack the buffer resources and storage capacity needed to meet such a crisis. Photo: University of Bergen
sea view
– Should they have spread the risk, rather than betting everything on the probably cheapest supplier who won the tender competition? he asks.
Crosses county boundaries
Another question is about the ability to coordinate across the various levels of management.
Great pressure on some passport offices has led some to cross county boundaries to avoid long queues. On Tuesday, Dagbladet reported on a case where two colleagues traveled from Bærum to Harstad to secure a passport in time for the holiday.
– Do people have to travel from region to region to stand in a queue? It seems completely prehistoric, says the UiB professor and continues:
Digitization has become an important coordination tool, but it does not seem as if the police have a particularly good grip on it when it comes to passport management.
He is clear that the citizens do not bear a responsibility in this matter.
Get a passport at express speed
– Creates great uncertainty
According to Lægreid, the passport crisis also affects two other concepts within public administration, namely management capacity and legitimacy.
The first is about whether the authorities are able to introduce measures to reduce the harmful effects.
– There is certainly a complex causal pattern that can explain the situation, but it really seems that they do not have good enough management capacity, says the professor.
It is again contagious to the governing legitimacy, ie people’s trust in the authorities, Lægreid elaborates.
– It’s starting to ball up now. This creates great uncertainty, and I would think that confidence in the police will be weakened in such a situation.
