NHO director Ole Erik Almlid believes the government can be led by Audun Lysbakken with the budget they have now agreed on.
In the budget agreement between the government parties and SV, the parties have agreed to study how commercial operations can be phased out from public welfare services.
This makes the NHO director react strongly.
– I must say I am very disappointed, and it is an extremely bad answer to the challenge we face, says NHO director Ole Erik Almlid to Nettavisen.
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– Strange they can be led
Almlid now warns strongly against the consequences if private actors are thrown out of the welfare services.
– We face enormous challenges on the welfare side. We are facing a wave of the elderly and have major tasks to be solved on the health side. Then we must have a collaboration between private and public, so it is strange that an initiative is taken to exclude those who can help solve the challenge, he says.
The NHO director believes the proposal is particularly an attack on district Norway.
– It is really to go across history, because historically there has been a good collaboration between private and public. District municipalities in particular depend on private actors to solve welfare challenges. So this is a major attack on district Norway, he says, who has no doubt that it is SV that has got its way here:
– It is very strange that the government allows itself to be led by SV in this matter. I find this disappointing, and an attack on private companies of an ideological nature, which they will get the maximum in return when they will solve the challenges of the future.
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As is well known, SV and the Labor Party have already implemented a similar policy in Oslo, where most commercial actors have already been removed from elderly care.
– I guess what we have seen in Oslo is what they want to do in all of Norway now, says Almlid.
– Bad for ordinary people
– What will be the consequences if private individuals are thrown out of the welfare services?
– If they tighten up towards private individuals being allowed to do the job, the result will be a poorer welfare offer in Norway. It will be a poorer welfare offer for ordinary people, and on top of that it will be more expensive because you do not get the good competition, says the NHO director.
He also believes that they will lose the technological development that private actors are often at the forefront of, and which is necessary to solve the tasks more efficiently.
– So this is a very bad policy for ordinary people in Norway, he states.
Almlid refers, among other things, to the kindergarten settlement from 2003, of which SV was the initiator, which was precisely a collaboration between private and public actors.
– You would not have managed the kindergarten settlement without the private actors. When you then remove the private actors’ opportunity to participate in solving the tasks, whether it is kindergartens, child welfare or other welfare tasks, the offer is worse, he warns.
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– Does not take out large dividends
– But there is no doubt that many private actors take out large dividends and make good money on the welfare offer. Do you understand the criticism that comes from several teams?
– It is wrong that there are such large profits from those who offer welfare services. That there are some exceptions, including when you have sold kindergartens, is the exception, but not the rule. The fact that an impression has been created of it is very sad, Almlid answers.
At the same time, he reacts to the fact that it should be wrong to make money.
– We must not get there that making money, so you can reinvest in the skills and development of your business, that it is a problem. It is a bigger problem when you drive badly. Those who make money are healthy companies, he says, and adds:
– We must not get to the point that those who make money are a problem.
– What do you think about the term «welfare profiteers», which several parties use?
– That’s just nonsense. There is no basis for using that term, and it is a fraudulent use of words. We are talking about welfare innovators, says Almlid.
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– Hoping for common sense
In the budget agreement between SV and the government parties Arbeiderpartiet and Senterpartiet, it is stated that: “By March 2022, the Storting asks the government to appoint a public committee to study how commercial operations can be phased out in various tax-financed welfare services, and to present a separate zero-profit model for each such sector.”
Now the NHO chief hopes that the report will end up in a drawer.
– This work is not finished, so I hope that the outcome of this will be common sense and that private and public work well together, Almlid says to Nettavisen.
He himself will be clear from the outset against the government.
– There is clearly a need to tell what private individuals contribute, and then we want a dialogue with the government, so that we can set up a committee that does this in a proper way. We must also tolerate that you look at things, but then we will also be involved, says Almlid.
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