Molde lost. Kristiansund won. The workplaces at the Nav Work and Performance unit will be gathered in a new building in Kristiansund from next spring. The conclusion is clear after Nav Forvaltning has had its say. The collection of this Nav unit means that less than 90 employees who currently have Molde as their office location, will have to commute to Kristiansund from 2023.
Commitment around this case is great both in Molde and in Kristiansund. It is natural when many government jobs are at stake. Every municipality does what it can to attract more government jobs. This case is not about new government jobs to Møre og Romsdal, but an internal relocation of jobs between two municipalities. The case is not about one municipality showing generosity towards the other. In the Nav case, it boils down to what is a factual justification for breaking up a well-functioning unit to gather it in one place.
Nav Management has set two main criteria for collecting devices. The first: The state will have lower costs by gathering units. The second criterion: Suitability. Suitability must weigh more than the price, and emphasis must be placed on access to public transport, how premises are designed and the date of moving in. From what we have seen from documents, it does not provide any financial gain to collect Nav Work and performance. On the contrary, the rent obligations will be greater. Then fitness remains.
Was it not possible to find suitable premises for a hundred people in Molde? The question hangs in the air. The director of Nav Forvaltning, Ellen Christine Christiansen, with broad experience from the Progress Party, the Free Democrats and the Conservatives and the administration, says that modern and adapted premises decided the choice. The government has chosen to keep its fingers off the plate and not intervene.
One of the government’s most important project described in the Hurdal platform is about stopping centralization. The Solberg government initiated several reforms that we have been critical of, among them the police reform and the judicial reform. With the Nav case, the Støre government had a golden opportunity to mark that it wants a new course where centralization is not a driving force. They did not seize that opportunity.
When there is also nothing to save on merging the Nav unit, the current system of shared office space should obviously have been reconsidered. The Nav management should also provide a proper explanation of whether the collection of Nav Work and performance provides better efficiency and better professional services for the users.
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