Drama continues
around children's
ombudsman post
 Ida Hjort Kraby's appointment as children's ombudsman lasted exactly a week. She ducked all media inquiries when controversy raged. PHOTO: CORNELIUS POPPE, SCANPIX Manuela Ramin-Osmundsen finally revealed important details of Kraby's employment process to Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, but then it was too late. PHOTO: JON HAUGE |
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Government lawyer Ida Hjort Kraby had mostly gone underground once controversy over her appointment started building steam over the weekend.
At issue was her long-time acquaintance with the government minister who had appointed her, Manuela
Ramin-Osmundsen, and whether Ramin-Osmundsen was guilty of a conflict of interest in giving her the job over incumbent ombudsman Reidar Hjermann.
But Thursday evening, after a week of dodging media requests for interviews, Kraby sent a statement to both the press and the government ministry in charge of children's issues and equality (Barne- og likestillingsdepartementet). In it, she wrote that she had concluded the position of ombudsman was "best served" by her resignation.
Kraby, who continued to refuse to answer any questions, thus gave the government the freedom to hire a new children's ombudsman and try to put the entire episode to rest. Both Ramin-Osmundsen and Kraby faced serious questions from opposition politicians in the parliament, and clearly had a credibility problem.
With that, both Kraby and Ramin-Osmundsen were out of the picture, and Stoltenberg, who had proudly appointed Ramin-Osmundsen as Norway's first non-white minister just last fall, had suffered a serious loss of prestige. Some political sources told Aftenposten on Friday that Stoltenberg, who had supported Ramin-Osmundsen until as late as Thursday morning, had no choice but to seek her resignation after it emerged that she hadn't told him all the details of her relationship with Kraby.
It's the second time Ramin-Osmundsen, who comes from Martinique and was educated as a lawyer in France, has had to resign from a top public post. She was appointed head of the immigration agency UDI a few years ago, but had to leave after questions arose about her prior knowledge of a controversy surrounding residence permits for Iraqi refugees.
In that case, as with the ombudsman controversy, Ramin-Osmundsen failed to disclose what she knew, and when she knew it. When she finally did disclose important details of Kraby's employment process to Stoltenberg, it was too late.
Meanwhile, former ombudsman Hjermann says he's keen to continue in the job if asked. A division of Norway's chapter of "Save the Children," however, already started making trouble for him Friday morning, criticizing his record and saying he wasn't clear enough on important issues.
The ministry can either re-appoint him or launch a new employment process. Several political candidates already are being tipped to take over for Ramin-Osmundsen. A new minister is expected to be announced within a week.
Nina Berglund
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