Karl Eirik Schjøtt-Pedersen (born 3 October 1959 in

Vardø Vardo or Vardø may refer to: Places * Vardø Municipality, a municipality in Finnmark county, Norway *Vardø (town) (Norwegian language, Norwegian; ), , or is a List of towns and cities in Norway, town and the administrative centre of Vard� ...

) is a Norwegian politician for the Labour Party. He is currently the Auditor General of Norway since 2022. He was a parliamentary representative for

Finnmark Finnmark (; ; ; ; ) is a counties of Norway, county in northern Norway. By land, it borders Troms county to the west, Finland's Lapland (Finland), Lapland region to the south, and Russia's Murmansk Oblast to the east, and by water, the Norweg ...

from 1985 to 2009. He served as Minister of Fisheries from 1996 to 1997 and Minister of Finance from 2000 to 2001 in the

first cabinet Stoltenberg Stoltenberg's First Cabinet governed Norway between 17 March 2000 and 19 October 2001. The Labour Party cabinet was led by Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg Jens Stoltenberg (; born 16 March 1959) is a Norwegian politician from the Labour Part ...

. Pedersen was Chief of Staff at the Office of the Prime Minister and a member of the Cabinet from 2006 to 2013. From 2015 to 2020 he was the CEO at Norwegian Oil and Gas.

Family and education

Schjøtt-Pedersen was born in Vardø in Finnmark in 1959, as the son of duty manager Odd Eirik Schjøtt Pedersen (1925–1993) and tax assessment secretary Aslaug Berntine Nilssen (1923–1981). He has a degree from a two-year course with a trade course from 1977, as well as a degree in art from 1978. He has a master's degree with political science, social economics and public law from the University of Oslo from 1985 and Master of Business Administration from Copenhagen Business School from 2015.

Career

Parliament

Schjøtt-Pedersen was a deputy member from 1981 to 1985, when he was elected a full time member. He was re-elected in 1989, and was so until 2009. While he was minister and part of government from 1996 to 1997, 2000 to 2001 and 2006 to 2013, his seat in Parliament was covered by deputies Gunnar Mathisen (1996–1997), Einar Johansen (2000–2001) and Alf E. Jakobsen (2006–2013).

Government

Post politics

In March 2015, he became chairman of the board of

Sparebank Sparebank is a type of Norwegian savings bank without external owners. The Norwegian sparebanks are a separate type of juridical entity that differ from commercial banks and are more similar to cooperative banks. , there were a total of 123 sav ...

1 Nord-Norge. Two months later, in May 2015, he became the CEO of Norwegian Oil and Gas. He stepped down from the position in early January 2020, but remained in place until a successor was appointed. He stated that "everything has an end", and added that he thought it was time for someone new to take over. He was subsequently succeeded by Anniken Hauglie. In February 2020, he became a partner in the socio-economic analysis company Menon Economics.

Auditor General of Norway

In November 2021, he was nominated as the next

Auditor General of Norway The Office of the Auditor General of Norway () is the state auditor of the Government of Norway and directly subordinate of the Parliament of Norway. It is responsible for auditing, monitoring and advising all state economic activities, including ...

, succeeding retiring

Per-Kristian Foss Per-Kristian Foss (born 19 July 1950) is a Norwegian politician for the Conservative Party and from 2014 to 2021 the Auditor General of Norway. He was elected to the Norwegian Parliament from Oslo in 1981, and was re-elected on six occasions. ...

. He assumed office on 1 January 2022. Upon assuming office, Schjøtt-Pedersen took over the investigation into members of Parliament's economic schemes. He called it "an important mission" and called the trust in elected officials "determining for the whole democratic system". He went on to say: "It is unusual for a Office of the Auditor General to generally be commissioned to review matters of such significance to the elected representatives. It is also unusual for the Storting to impose such a review. The Office of the Auditor General does not usually go into individual cases, but we will do so now". In October, he presented a report into the

Norwegian Army The Norwegian Army () is the land warfare service branch of the Norwegian Armed Forces. The Army is the oldest of the Norwegian service branches, established as a modern military organization under the command of the King of Norway in 1628. The ...

's information systems which determined that there were numerous vulnerabilities. Schjøtt-Pedersen also stated that the findings pinpoints serious concerns and consequences for national security. In December, he presented a report looking into the authorities control over waste which is exported from Norway. The report concludes that Norwegian authorities' handling of the issue is critic worthy, parts of the exporting is illegal and that control over waste is lacking. In April 2023, he presented another report into MPs economic schemes. The report determined that 61 MPs had not complied with the disclosure obligation - i.e. the rule that they must inform about other income while they are paid from the Storting so that this can be deducted. This also implies that they received to much severance pay.

Personal life

He is married to Grete Lorck, whom he met in Oslo in 1986. Together they have three children.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Schjoett-Pedersen, Karl Eirik 1959 births Government ministers of Norway Living people People from Vardø Labour Party (Norway) politicians Ministers of finance of Norway Members of the Storting 2001–2005 Members of the Storting 1993–1997 Members of the Storting 1997–2001 Members of the Storting 2005–2009 Members of the Storting 1989–1993 Members of the Storting 1985–1989