Minister of Labour and Government Administration Laila Dåvøy

Statement on Administration Policy 1999 - Public sector - a question of confidence

Statement to the Storting, 26 April 1999

linkdoc002005-090064#docPå norsk

How can we avoid meeting tomorrow's problems with today's solutions?

I would like to devote this policy statement to presenting the government's view of the public administration's role and functions in the years ahead. I will present the government's over-arching visions and objectives in this important sphere, and also briefly describe concrete projects and plans for attaining these objectives.

The government starts out from the premise that people can and wish to be active participants in our society, not merely customers and clients.

Although the public administration appears to function smoothly, this does not mean that we can rest content with the status quo. On the contrary. In its Voksenåsen declaration the government parties pointed out that democracy is under pressure. A smoothly functioning public administration is our foremost tool for upholding democracy and taking it forward. Our citizens must have the perception that the public administration protects their interests and is at their service. In the final analysis the issue is one of democracy, and indeed this is the main perspective underlying my statement.

The public administration is the focus of much attention. Events there concern and preoccupy the great majority of us. Administrative policy focuses attention on the goals, functions and values of the public administration. It is concerned with developing framework conditions able to promote the public administration as an instrument well suited to implementing the policy adopted. And it deals with the structures and processes that are chosen to put policy into practice.

Public administration must be transparent, allow public access, and ensure judicial safeguards and protection of personal data. The public administration is the servant of the people and of democracy. Hence service-mindedness and respect for the individual should be its necessary hallmarks. At the same time the resources placed at the disposal of the public administration must be utilised as efficiently as possible. The interests of transparency, legal safeguards and efficiency may conflict in practice. They must be balanced against each other in each concrete situation, but this government's view is that transparency must be an over-arching objective.

The government desires a living democracy whose citizens can influence their everyday life and future and actively participate in the decision-making processes at all levels of society. A precondition for achieving this is a smoothly functioning and transparent public administration. Hence both central and local government need to adapt to new conditions in step with changes in society at large. We have to tackle tasks in new ways and capture new needs. Indeed the Norwegian public administration has undergone major changes in its almost 200 year history, changes necessitated by the upheavals resulting from the transition from an agrarian to an industrial society. The same applies to our transition to a knowledge- and information-driven society. We are at a watershed in our history.

Information and communication technology are affecting our everyday life more and more radically. Above all our institutions, work methods and customary interaction patterns are changing far more rapidly than previously. Earlier knowledge, monopolies and traditional information flows are being broken down and radical changes are taking place on the media front. Education and learning are becoming a lifelong process.

The public administration cannot dissociate itself from such a development, nor does it do so. For my part I have to say that I am impressed by the future-oriented and pro-active approach of the public administration to the technological challenges it faces. At the same time it is important for this government to maintain throughout a critical stance that ensures protection of personal data and legal safeguards.

Developments in the public administration over the past 10-15 years reflect the transition to new forms of affiliation for public enterprises which have narrowed the opportunities for direct State control. The authorities' traditional influence exercised via its management of public enterprises and through monopolies has thus weakened in a number of areas, and is likely to weaken further. This is due partly to the emergence of alternative options, partly to individuals' and organised interests' greater access to knowledge. An exciting consequence of this new knowledge-driven society is that it confronts the public administration with a citizen who is far stronger in resources and far more demanding than previously. She will also have a far greater range of choice, will have easier access to information about her rights and duties and, not least, will make unprecedented demands of the service, efficiency and quality of public administration. Active and insightful citizens will moreover expect a transparent and accessible public administration which allows insight into and participation in the decision-making process and which meets the individual with respect.

We wish to create a future in which the world of work and employer and union organisations are based on knowledge and communication devoid of boundaries, thereby producing a more flexible society. If we fail to radically change and renew the public administration, we will risk facing tomorrow's problems with today's solutions. Technology opens the way for new opportunities, bringing a more flexible employer-employee relationship. Paid employment need no longer entail having a permanent employment contract along today's lines. The individual will be able to influence his own work situation and shape his own workplace to a far greater degree. Moreover the distinction between work and leisure will be blurred, not least through homeworking or working time arrangements tailored to the individual.

Increased internationalisation of capital, goods flows and information will also bring the nation-state, its values, legitimacy and hence its entire administration under pressure. We must accept that it may be necessary to replace present forms of organisation and communication with new ones. A continual effort must be made to find an optimal division of responsibilities and functions between central and local government and between public and private activity. This could lead to a blurring of the divides between the public and private sectors.

Important challenges for public administration policy will be:

• to increase transparency and citizens' right of access and information
• to develop measurable criteria for the quality of public administration services
• to modernise, simplify and increase the efficiency of the public sector
• to develop competence, the ability to adjust, and service-mindedness among civil service employees.

Part 1: The citizen, user and the public administration: Democracy, user orientation, transparency and service

The public administration's contribution to a democratic development

The public administration is a tool for the exercise of government policy. As such it is an important instrument for democracy. But it should be more than that. The government expects the public administration to make an active contribution to promoting a democratic development of society. To obtain this values such as accessibility, transparency, participation, service and quality must be equally as important as the more traditional public administration values of security under the law, neutrality, sectoral independence, equality of treatment and predictability.

The public administration has long worked systematically to improve its relations with its users. While much remains to be done, results have been achieved.

People's confidence in the public administration must be based on fruitful encounters with the government offices. Confidence is built by clarifying expectations and then fulfilling them.

User orientation and citizen orientation

The individual citizen is more than a user of public services. He is also a citizen and a participant in the community in which he lives. This entails a right to participate in the democratic process and to make one's views heard in order to influence the decision-making process up to the point when the decisions are taken. But it also requires the individual, based on his resources, to be actively involved and to participate in the development of society.

The goal of citizen-orientation must be to increase the number of active participants in society's decision-making processes. While encouraging participation through the traditional channels, the government will also attach importance to arriving at new channels for participation as well as at forms of work and organisation which can foster increased participation in the decision-making process. This will make for decisions that are more well-informed and have greater legitimacy. Improved, broader-based participation in the political process is also necessary to bring about improved integration of various groups in an increasingly diverse and complex society. The emergence of major sub-cultures or groups which remain outside mainstream society must be avoided if a sound, stable democracy is to be maintained.

Putting the focus on the individual has repercussions both for the organisation and workings of the public administration as well as for the requirements imposed on public sector employees.

Important issues:

If we are taking this effort further we must be willing to raise questions about the role of the public administration, such as:

• How can the public administration contribute to a more democratic development of society?
• How can the legitimacy of political decisions be strengthened?
• How can the public administration's relationship to the private sector be developed with an eye to the democratic perspective?
• How can the public administration be made more service-oriented and focused on respect for the individual?

Greater transparency - new meeting points

One approach is to organise new meeting points between the public administration and citizens. Both the administration and the citizen have a responsibility for this. We also have to consider whether the political process can be simplified to make it more accessible to a greater number of people. Not least, we will stress the importance of developing a more conscious and clear-cut relationship with the voluntary organisations to enable them to play their role as a central element in the civil society. The voluntary sector has both welfare-producing and democracy-bearing functions. The public administration must for its part be bolder and be prepared to experiment more with its working methods. A far wider use of open electronic hearings could be a fruitful avenue.

User-orientation and quality

The aim of the user-orientation programme in the public administration is to get the administration to attach greater importance to the end product and to users' assessments of the services offered. A user-oriented, quality-conscious and service-minded public administration is a precondition for confidence among both the users of welfare services and among the population in general. This applies not only when the State is a service provider but at least as much when it administers laws and guidelines or wields authority.

The public administration produces services which are important to a user, an individual, an organisation or an enterprise. Responsibility for ensuring that the services are of good quality does not rest exclusively with the government agency which meets the user directly. This view of the public administration entails that all parts of it are responsible for the services provided to the user. The ministries' work, too, is as a rule part of a chain of actions, attitudes and decisions which culminate in a service to a user.

The user must a critical consumer in relation to public services, a customer who increasingly demands to have his case handled here and now, and who does not accept a processing delay lasting months and years.

All public enterprises must in addition to disseminating information also attach importance to exploiting the electronic channel to provide user-oriented, efficient services, for example by enabling use of electronic forms and other methods for reporting, reception and processing of applications, orders and various types of interactive online services.

Service-mindedness

Increasingly resourceful and aware consumers will make new demands on the public administration, thereby drawing attention to user interests. Service-mindedness must play a bigger role in public enterprises' organisation culture and be assigned importance on a par with the traditional public service values. Recruitment to the public administration must not become excessively one-sided, but should to a larger degree reflect the diversity of values represented by various groups in society. This will promote greater understanding of a broad range of user needs.

Service declarations

Service declarations are among the new instruments now being tested as part of the overall improvement effort. Work on service declarations is now under way at both central and local government level and in the law court system. While such declarations will be an important instrument in their own right, they will not on their own suffice to achieve the desired results.

Government service offices (one stop shops)

The government wishes to introduce government service offices offering the individual co-ordinated and good service on a one stop basis. The arrangement is intended as a substantially service enhancement: one door, one counter, one telephone number! It will promote regional policy considerations by stemming the closure of government agencies at the local level through incorporating them in the one stop system. Government service offices will also be able to play a part in democracy-building by providing a meeting place for citizens and politicians. It may be noted that the Swedish government service offices set aside a specific time each week for constituents to meet their local politicians.

A working group has been set up to look into possible formal obstacles to the introduction of government service offices, to propose changes and recommend solutions. The group is due to present its recommendations by February 2000.

"Norge.no"

A further example is "Norge.no" which will unify all central and local government information available on the Internet. Information will not refer exclusively to the public administration, but also to the Storting and the law courts, and will promote well organised and presented information for all target groups. The government hopes that establishing this Internet channel will make it easier for most people to get their bearings in relation to public agencies and at the same time stimulate the agencies to employ the Internet for public relations purposes and in their interaction with users.

Simplifying Norway

The government has initiated a programme called "Simplifying Norway". The central administration wishes to simplify the individual's and the business sector's relations with the public authorities. Under the programme local authorities will enjoy greater freedom enabling them to devote more resources to service provision rather than administration and control. The prime minister himself fronts this programme and several ministers participate in the steering group.

The programme has three objectives: First, the government will initiate a clear-up and simplification of laws and regulations, especially in regard to the business sector. Complying with Norwegian legislation must not monopolise undue resources.

Second, it must be made simpler for the individual to relate to public services and government agencies. In addition to establishing "One Stop Shops" and elaborating service declarations, attention will be given to modernising, improving the efficiency of and co-ordinating the service organisation and to improving the allocation of tasks between levels and sectors.

Third, State rules and administrative orders imposed on the municipal sector will be scrutinised. The idea is to remove constraints which reduce the scope for action at the local level and impair local authorities' ability to perform their tasks efficiently.

IT as a means of modernising and improving the public administration

In its Voksenåsen declaration the government expressed a desire to "use information and communication technology to renew, improve and modernise all aspects of the public sector". At the same time traditional administrative policy values such as personal data protection, legal safeguards and equality of treatment should be fully taken care of. Measures designed to realise the government's objective are elaborated on in a separate action plan whose purpose is to co-ordinate and underpin the development of IT in the central government administration. A steadily growing share of the public administration's functions are now carried out electronically. A public administration where co-ordination within the administration and between the administration and its users is electronic, requires access to the technology. Recent statistics show that almost 1.7 million people in Norway now have access to the Internet at home, at school or at work. Internet access has soared and the growth curve seems to be holding. The Internet is well suited to disseminating information, but also well suited to providing services. By way of example, several banks now offer online services and the users are highly satisfied. These same users will expect the public administration to make its services available via the Internet, enabling them to service their own needs at the time and from the location that suit them best. The public administration should be attentive to such expectations and install appropriate electronic tools. Norway was, for example through ODIN, an early bird in this field, and a steadily growing number of public agencies are in the process of developing their Internet services to meet new challenges.

My main objective is that everyone should benefit, directly or indirectly, from information technology! IT should be utilised in such a way that it does not create new information divides in society between those who are conversant with the new technology and those who are not. It is a political responsibility to see that resources which are liberated are deployed to improve traditional channels for those who still wish to use them.

New technology is bringing major changes in the public administration and in society as a whole. The legislation must be revised to take account of the changes. New technology and media developments have contributed to greater transparency, but are also making new demands in terms of filing, recovery and publication by the public administration. I therefore believe it is crucial to maintain an awareness of this trend. The project «Electronic Journal» (Electronisk postjournal) is a good example of how new technology can promote transparency in the public administration. Concurrently the significance of geographic distance to the public administration is diminishing since more and more ministry files are electronically accessible and searchable on the Internet. The government aims to get all ministries and bigger government agencies to join this project.

IT and democracy

Through experiments with electronic hearings and discussion groups the public administration has demonstrated its wish to introduce new technology as a basis for an active democracy whose threshold for insight into and dialogue with the public administration is lower than at present. One concrete example is «The Public Administration Network Project» (Forvaltningsnettprosjektet). During the entire process of developing framework agreements for IT products and services this project has actively utilised the Internet to carry on a running dialogue with potential suppliers and customers. Interested citizens have concurrently been able to follow the process at close quarters.

Information on duties and rights on the Internet

Rapid and simple access to basic information on legal sources will strengthen legal safeguards and the democratic process and promote a more transparent, quality-oriented public administration. A working group was recently appointed to examine the possibility of developing a coherent, user-friendly and reliable system for public information on duties and rights. The system will provide simple access to information about laws, regulations, legislative history and case law via the Internet.

Part 2: The public administration: Management, readjustment and decentralisation

Open to redefining the role of the State

The public sector is increasingly exposed to competition, both as a result of technological evolution and of the internationalisation of goods, services, capital and labour markets. Moreover, the public sector is expected to be run as efficiently as possible. This requirement will not be diminished once incomes from the petroleum-based activity are reduced in the longer term.

Need for suitable forms of affiliation

The State's role has changed over the past 10 years. Public enterprises have been given a freer commercial position on a broad front. The State is more differentiated than previously in terms of organisation and management. As part of this process, more and more agencies and functions are being detached from the State's core and given a freer form of affiliation.

Structural changes require the public sector to redefine its functions and roles. There have been a fair number of changes of affiliation over the past few years; administrative and business functions are increasingly being separated, and the roles of service provider, supervisory and control authority and profit centre are being refined to a greater degree.

The State does not necessarily need to own

A closer look must be taken at the extent and organisation of State ownership. The government believes that State management can be handled through channels other than direct ownership. Catchphrases could be wider recourse to legislation rather than instructions and traditional owner-management, licence allocations, changing requirements on institutions, required rates of return etc. In cases where the State acts as owner it is important to ensure that the State administers its ownership efficiently and professionally, inter alia through the State policy on returns and dividends. Improving ownership quality by bringing in private owners would be a challenging move.

Let the State compete with itself and other players

The government stresses that Norway needs a large public sector to ensure equal service provision nation-wide. At the same time we emphasise the need to modernise and renew the public sector, inter alia by placing the user at centre-stage and developing measurable criteria for service quality. The government wishes to strengthen the pool of knowledge resulting from technological progress and the competition to which the public sector is exposed. To this end the government has initiated a project to study the public sector's exposure to competition. A committee will obtain and systematise knowledge both about the preconditions for and experience with exposure to competition. On this basis the committee will consider what areas are suitable for competitive exposure and what forms of such exposure should be utilised for various services.

Where the production of public services is concerned, it may be appropriate to distinguish between the order-placing role and the role of producer. In their order-placing role the public authorities are primarily responsible for defining the content of and imposing quality requirements on the service, and verifying that the requirements are complied with. In their order-placing role the public authorities also have a clear-cut responsibility for financing the service so that the individual has access to the service as and when needed, irrespective of his financial capacity or other resources. There is no question, nor will there be, of the public authorities relinquishing this responsibility when it comes to key welfare facilities such as health services, nursing and care services or education.

Although responsibility for placing an order for a service is a public one, central and local government do not necessarily need to be responsible for producing the service. Private sector players and voluntary organisations can show entrepreneurial responsibility by competing for the producer role. Such competition will provide a positive stimulus to public providers of the same services, and also make it simpler for the public authorities as order-placer to define requirements as to service, price and quality, as is the case today.

Another key challenge will be to develop the concept of management by objectives and performance, where comparison between administrative agencies, so-called benchmarking, could be a pertinent instrument. Government departments and agencies would then be able to compare performance.

The State as controller and competitor

With State-owned commercial undertakings becoming more exposed to competition than previously, the State will in a steadily growing number of areas act both as owner and regulator. Such a combination of roles and interests could cast doubt on the State's credibility as an impartial authority. This may create conflicts since a level playing field is a necessary precondition for public and private enterprises alike. The State as regulator must safeguard universal interests and organise regulatory measures in such a way that they apply to the State in the same way as to other players. Hence public sector enterprises must be organised in such a way that they do not operate under different competitive conditions from private sector enterprises. A relevant issue in this connection is whether one and the same ministry should be both owner and controller. One option may be to hive off control functions to agencies which are do not subsume under the King or the ministries.

State functions must be decentralised

The government wishes to involve the entire country. To this end the State must take the lead and decentralise its activities. Relocation of public activities to the regions can help to generate creative environments and at the same time supply competence to local communities. This could promote a positive trend in areas of the country lacking in commercial activity. For this reason the government wishes to assign further State tasks and functions to the regions. This includes new tasks as well as transfers of current tasks and functions from central to regional and local levels, in other words to a level as close to the consumer as possible. A special group of senior government officials has been appointed to look into the above issues. In this process new modes of co-ordination and task-solving will be tried out across the various levels of administration and geographical boundaries. New technology will be a powerful aid. Information and communication technology will be utilised systematically to shorten the distance between administrative entities and set the stage for a larger portion of public tasks to be handled in the local level. The government will also look into the possibilities of having more employees resident outside major population settlement areas. Catchwords here are telecommuting, remote offices and more flexible working time arrangements.

Who should do what in the public administration?

Many municipalities and county municipalities find that their resources don't go round. Too little is left for local politics after the tasks imposed by central government have been performed. Hence if local democracy is to be safeguarded it is important to strive for a better distribution of tasks between the various levels of public administration and to ensure a reasonable balance between tasks and resources. Overlapping between the various levels of administration must be avoided. In a complex welfare state there is no simple and final answer to who should to do what. Hence a critical question is whether roles are properly distributed across the various levels of administration and whether co-operation in management and decision-making between the various levels is effective. Part of the mandate of a government-appointed Commission on the allocation of tasks and responsibilities between government levels (Oppgavefordelingsutvalget), which is due to present its recommendations in just over a year from now, is to put forward proposals for a distribution of functions between levels of the administration that is in keeping with present-day challenges.

The efficiency of central government bodies at the local and regional levels also needs to be improved. The scope of work to be done by these bodies must be in proportion to the resources made available. An increased focus on IT is an important efficiency measure which will help to remedy this situation. Experimenting with public administration across organisational and geographical boundaries is another. Moreover, it is important to co-ordinate State control functions vis-à-vis the municipal sector as far as possible. In concrete terms this means that State agencies whose present main tasks are guidance, advice and control of local government administration should as a rule be attached to the office of the county governor.

Information technology enables flexibility

The rapid changes in the world of employment impose new demands on the State's capacity for flexibility. We have to find new modes of co-operation and task-solving across administrative levels and sectors. Information technology provides possibilities for flexible localisation of jobs and for adaptation of the individual's work situation. Making the most of these possibilities requires adjustments to the body of laws and agreements, but not least the will to put the arrangements into practical use.

Dealing with the vulnerability associated with information technology

In one of the most IT-intensive countries in the world, various information technology applications are leaving their stamp on work processes, information processing and communication in community life, commerce and industry and in the public administration. Hence vulnerability in the event of serious computer problems is likely to be high. Computer problems crop up daily in various contexts, as a rule without dramatic consequences. What is special about the turn of the millennium is the potential for large-scale computer problems across all sectors of society. Because government agencies are linked together in networks it is difficult to gain an overview of the consequences of the problems for the public administration as a whole. Work on handling computer problems associated with the date change at the turn of the century will also have positive effects in the longer term. The scrutiny of computer systems and computer equipment is being accompanied by a clearing-up process at many enterprises. As a result computer operation will become more efficient, and the ability to deal with the vulnerability associated with using information technology will improve, also in the long term.

Thirty years on

The adjustments in the public sector must be viewed in a longer perspective than just a few years into the future. For this reason the government has launched a major project designated Norway 2030. The aim of the project is to strengthen the public administration's capacity for readjustment and to instil a readiness to develop solutions to long-term challenges.

Oil production can be expected to fall in the period to 2030, while gas production will rise to higher levels than today. Petroleum production will continue to play an important role in the shaping of Norwegian policy in the period. At the same time we must assume that globalisation, migration and extensive

technological changes will radically affect the Norwegian society. The changed conditions will have a bearing on the public sector's role and public employees' work situation. We are therefore compelled at this early stage to raise issues such as the following:

• What steps should be taken to prepare the public sector to tackle the economic, social, political and cultural changes ahead?
• Will the present division of roles between the public and private sector be appropriate if Norway as a society is to succeed in developing a solid non-oil economy at the right time?
• Will the present division of responsibilities and functions between local, regional, national and supra-national levels in the public sector be able to meet such challenges?

I hope that the Norway 2030 project will suggest possible answers to these and other relevant issues related to the future of the Norwegian public sector.

Part 3: The public administration and its staff: Competence, attitudes and readjustment

Requirements as to efficiency and market adjustment also in the public sector

The private and public sector are gradually drawing closer in several areas: Tasks previously in the hands of the public sector are being privatised or exposed to competition. There is also a stronger emphasis on efficiency and market mechanisms within parts of the public administration, both as regards the way work is performed and pay policy. We can only exert influence by taking an active part in the development, for instance through the shaping of instruments.

Greater emphasis on competence and quality

Personnel expenditure makes up a substantial part of the State's current expenditure. How human resources are employed is therefore of great significance. It is important to apply measurable performance criteria at staff, at the same time as the State as employer must lay the basis for a sound human resources policy which stimulates staff to perform to the best of their ability.

I believe one of the main tasks for the State as employer is to put itself in a position to recruit, develop and retain able staff members. At the same time we are increasingly required to relocate or dispense with tasks in certain sectors. The catchword for meeting these challenges collectedly is competence, both in the world of work and in the community in general. For although education levels vary, formal qualifications alone are no guarantee that the individual employee will tackle the challenges posed by readjustment. The government's education reform, which stresses the importance of refresher and further training, will lift competence levels in society further. We have to ensure that the reform promotes and stimulates development of real, practical skills enabling the individual to apply his competence in new ways and to new tasks and co-operative relations. I believe that increasing demands will be made ahead on the individual staff member's ability to combine and apply acquired knowledge. An organisational basis must also be laid for good learning environments and to encourage the public administration to make better use of its overall reservoir of competence. In this connection I must remark on a competence in the civil service which is under-utilised. As we know, more than 40% of employees in our sector are women, but this is not reflected in the number of women managers. The government is committed to significantly raising the proportion of women in management positions in the civil service - from 22% in 1997 to 30% by the end of 2001. A number of measures have been implemented to achieve this. The effort is now starting to produce results. Reported figures from ministry areas as of 1 January this year show that we are about half-way (26%) to reaching the target.

The public sector's need for a broad range of competence is also pointed up by demographic developments. The government wishes to recruit more disabled persons and persons with an immigrant background to the public administration. It has taken an important step in the right direction in the shape of an action plan specifically to ensure increased recruitment of immigrants to the civil service.

We are also concerned to lay the basis for our senior staff to develop their abilities so that we can retain them as a resource for a longer period. I have no doubt that in the longer term these measures will have a bearing on the quality of the work done in the central administration in general.

"The project nomad"

In step with the advent of the competence-driven society and a tight labour market, concepts such the "project nomad" and "knowledge entrepreneur" have arisen. Workers are owners of the most important production factor - namely competence - and they bring this with them from employer to employer, depending on where overall conditions at any given time are most favourable. This is still not a widespread phenomenon, either in employment in general or in the civil service. But, in step with developments elsewhere in the world of work, a development is likely in which certain groups of employees favour a looser association with their employers in order to shape their working day themselves to a greater degree. If it is to compete for sought-after labour, the State must also be able to meet such challenges.

The employees' individual needs through the life-course

If the State is to be able to participate in the competition for the most attractive labour, it must have a human resources policy which take proper account of the employees' individual needs. Needs, wishes and opportunities change through one's life-course and career, and in step with the development of society. This is evident in regard to the issue of flexible working time arrangements. Recent surveys show that relations with colleagues and management, and opportunities for personal development at work, are most important for the majority of employees. We also see that beneficial staff arrangements - including where working time is concerned - mean a lot when it comes to recruiting well-qualified women to managerial positions in the civil service. So far the State has enjoyed a competitive advantage in this field. While pay conditions are important when choosing a place to work, they are not the most important factor overall. In the civil service there has been a trend towards increased flexibility, particularly as regards working time. Surveys show that a substantial share of workers would favour greater flexibility in terms of working time and work location. Active efforts are now being made to find ways to increase this flexibility in the civil service.

Increased mobility

The public administration is complex and diverse, and employee mobility varies widely among different types of public enterprises. Greater mobility - also across agencies and towards the municipal and private sectors - is desirable. This will make for greater readiness to readjust and adapt, at the same time as having experience from several organisation cultures is valuable in its own right, both for the individual and for the enterprise in question.

Conclusion

I have concentrated on three central administrative policy developments in the years ahead: The active citizen with new demands, an adaptable and user-oriented public administration and an employer policy which ensures the necessary breadth and competence of the individual staff member in the public sector. In the years ahead change will be a more natural condition in the public sector than maintaining the status quo.

As minister of labour and government administration my focus is precisely on the interface between the public administration and the private sphere, whether it be in the form of a "one stop shop" or the Internet. It is this meeting between the public authorities and private individuals that poses the main challenge in terms of creating a qualitatively better public sector.

The Voksenåsen declaration establishes that Norway needs a large public sector to ensure identical service provision nation-wide, and that a pro-active strategy is needed to ensure such provision.

In this statement I have shown how, through a broad range of instruments and measures, we have got to grips with this challenge and are translating it into concrete action and practical policy:

A policy which encompasses user-orientation, modernisation and increased efficiency, but perhaps first and foremost a genuine boost to service to strengthen the individual's confidence in the public administration. Such confidence must also be based on the public administration's competence and ability to readjust. For confidence is the very precondition for a smoothly functioning public sector that is in keeping with our administrative policy goals!