"I am surprised and very skeptical. The proposal opens the way for abuse and can lead to increased corruption," said Jan Borgen, secretary general in Transparency International Norge, part of a global organization that fights corruption at national and international levels.
The new left-center alliance's government platform, the Soria Moria Declaration, said that the threshold value for competitive bidding for public purchases would be raised to European Union levels.
Norway's current limit for requiring competitive bidding is NOK 500,000 (USD 77,500), the EU limit is NOK 1.8 million.
"The whole point of threshold values is to have public procurement under a certain amount of control. When this limit is raised it becomes easier to circumvent the rules. We have seen examples of corruption in public purchasing and are skeptical to the government's proposal," Borgen said.
