Nannestad is a quiet agricultural municipality north of Oslo, best known as the area around Gardermoen airport. Between 2000 and 2014, its technical department was the site of one of Norway's longest-running municipal fraud cases.
The head of the technical department was responsible for approving invoices related to the municipality's sewage treatment plants and pumping stations. Over fourteen years, he approved approximately 7.5 million kroner in completely fictitious invoices from a single supplier of spare parts. The supplier also submitted around 9 million in legitimate invoices during the same period, making the fraud harder to spot in the flow of paperwork. Every fake invoice was signed off by the department head and paid out by the municipality without question.
His reward for fourteen years of fraud was modest: around 485,000 kroner in cash, some bottles of brandy, and a water heater. The supplier kept the rest.
The scheme unravelled when an internal review at Nannestad municipality raised suspicions about fictitious invoicing from the spare parts supplier. The supplier admitted to the fraud and identified the department head as his inside man. The investigation revealed that the municipality's head of accounting had questioned some of the invoices over the years, but the department head simply told her they were "in order" and she accepted his word.
The department head had worked for the municipality since the 1980s and was a trusted figure. He was convicted of gross passive corruption and gross breach of trust, and sentenced to four years and two months in prison. The case exposed a weakness common to many small Norwegian municipalities: the two-person approval system for invoices existed on paper, but in practice one trusted individual could override it for decades without anyone pushing back.
The head of the technical department was responsible for approving invoices related to the municipality's sewage treatment plants and pumping stations. Over fourteen years, he approved approximately 7.5 million kroner in completely fictitious invoices from a single supplier of spare parts. The supplier also submitted around 9 million in legitimate invoices during the same period, making the fraud harder to spot in the flow of paperwork. Every fake invoice was signed off by the department head and paid out by the municipality without question.
His reward for fourteen years of fraud was modest: around 485,000 kroner in cash, some bottles of brandy, and a water heater. The supplier kept the rest.
The scheme unravelled when an internal review at Nannestad municipality raised suspicions about fictitious invoicing from the spare parts supplier. The supplier admitted to the fraud and identified the department head as his inside man. The investigation revealed that the municipality's head of accounting had questioned some of the invoices over the years, but the department head simply told her they were "in order" and she accepted his word.
The department head had worked for the municipality since the 1980s and was a trusted figure. He was convicted of gross passive corruption and gross breach of trust, and sentenced to four years and two months in prison. The case exposed a weakness common to many small Norwegian municipalities: the two-person approval system for invoices existed on paper, but in practice one trusted individual could override it for decades without anyone pushing back.
