Oslo Municipality spent over 17 million on drawing a wardrobe that did not materialize. Over a hundred external consultants were involved in the project.
The rubbish dump at Haraldrud on the west side of Groruddalen is Norway’s largest of its kind. The facility is central to the Oslo City Council’s commitment to the green shift. But the changing rooms for the employees at the Haraldrud plant have far from been satisfactory.
A new cloakroom for 50 employees worth NOK 18 million was therefore to be built, but it never materialized, despite the use of money. The project was therefore one of the candidates for The online newspaper’s Waste Price »for 2020.
The public action no to more tolls (FNB) has demanded access to the invoices charged to the project. And this insight shows that NOK 17.33 million has been spent without a wardrobe being built.
Through the inspection, FNB has revealed that a total of 12,761 hours have been invoiced for drawing the planned cloakroom at an average price of just over NOK 1,100 per hour. 101 consultants have been involved in the project to draw a municipal cloakroom that 50 people would use.
Also read: They get more money than they can burn off. And shut up for spending too little
– Completely beyond
Rambøll alone put on 89 consultants on the cloakroom project and invoiced a full 11,959 hours, according to FNB. The consulting company was paid 13.36 million for the wardrobe job. City council representative Cecilie Lyngby (FNB) reacts strongly to the use of consultants and costs.
– Over a hundred consultants have been used just to design the wardrobe. Invoices have been written here with a fork for a wardrobe that was never built, it is completely beyond, says Lyngby to Nettavisen Økonomi.
Total consultancy payments in the project amount to as much as NOK 14.2 million. One Rambøll consultant has invoiced a staggering 1614.5 hours and has been paid almost NOK 1.98 million for a wardrobe that has never been used.
Lyngby says the study work was started without any tender for the work.
– Instead, planning was initiated under a framework contract for consultancy services. The Energy and Recycling Agency has previously entered into an agreement with Rambøll, says the city council representative.
Read also: The Labor Minister’s own company receives tens of millions in public support
No control
In addition to Rambøll, the consulting companies Multiconsult and WSP Norway have been involved in the design work. According to Lyngby, both Rambøll and Multiconsult have again used architectural offices as subcontractors
– The worst thing is that neither Oslo municipality nor the city council have control. As a former operations manager and district manager, I have built many stores in my career. When building something new and having a budget, you need to stay within the set framework.
– My most important job as operations manager was to relate to the budget. If you went outside, you did something about it there and then.
Temporary
Lyngby says she has taken up the matter with the city council and asked the questions she could, without getting so much wiser.
In a written note to the city council’s bodies on 29 April, she received the answer that the Waste Management and Recycling Agency (REG) is working on a facility with temporary changing rooms. This project was then under establishment, with planned completion on 25 May this year.
The agency then announced that just under NOK 400,000 had been incurred in costs for designing the temporary changing rooms. According to the then city councilor Lan Marie Berg, groundwork, rig costs, transport and installation of temporary changing rooms would cost approx. 1.4 million kroner.
Blame it on the bourgeoisie
Current City Councilor for the Environment and Transport, Sirin Stav (MDG) blames the previous city councilor. She writes in an e-mail to Nettavisen that the project with new changing rooms and a number of additional functions such as a fitness room, was started under the bourgeois city council.
– The project was completed before my time, and has received wide coverage in the press and in the city council. The City Council has been clear that this project should have been stopped earlier. The waste management and recycling agency now has temporary changing rooms at the facility, and is working on a permanent solution, Stav writes in the e-mail.
Press officer Terje Elvsaas in Rambøll writes in an e-mail that they usually leave it to the clients to comment on such questions.
Lyngby thinks the project at Haraldrud is very scary and an example of just several things she thinks the city council has no control over.
No big deal
– For several projects, it does not matter what it costs, and then it is difficult to vote for or against when it is presented. I call it budget cracking, the city council does not. But as in the case of the new water supply to Oslo, it is the taxpayers’ money that is at stake. It seems that the city council is blowing in.
Lyngby is upset about the many budget gaps in Oslo municipality, a municipality she believes could have been run so much better. This applies, among other things, to elderly care and the need for more nursing home places.
She points out that a free dental check-up for residents over the age of 45 every three years would have cost the municipality 31 million. It is less than half the cost of a cloakroom facility that never materialized.
–
