Posted on 09/03/2006 1:04:16 PM PDT by Kurt_Hectic
The US ambassador to Norway gave a speech full of polite but very firm criticism of the Norwegian oil fund's blacklisting of American companies.
US ambassador to Norway Benson K. Whitney spoke to the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI) on Friday, and made it clear that shared core values "like fairness, transparency, justice, dialogue, ethics" gave way to "disappointment and surprise" due to the failure of Norway to live up these ideals when investing its petroleum riches.
"It's one thing for an individual Norwegian to get up one morning, read the paper, decide they don't like a company for some reason, and sell their stock. This is a private decision with limited impact," Whitney said.
"It's quite another thing for a sovereign government – particularly one like Norway - to take an official and very public action to accuse a foreign company of severely unethical conduct and sell its stock. And this is what has happened most recently to the American firms Wal-Mart, Freeport-Mason, and earlier to Kerr-Mcgee," Whitney said.
Whitney criticized what he views as the less than rigorous process of investigating accusations of bad ethics in corporations, and asked the Norwegian government to understand the ramifications of its decisions.
The ambassador argued that the choice of company for review was basically arbitrary since there was no set standard for the procedure, and that the complaint process was also flawed.
"The council primarily reacts to individuals, outside organizations, and government entities who challenge the ethics of a particular company," Whitney said.
Norway primarily drops companies from its Petroleum Fund, now known as "The Government Pension Fund - Global", when it finds links to the weapons industry.
"But even in the non-defense cases, one hundred percent of those found guilty of serious or systematic human rights violations, guilty of desecrating the environment, of violating fundamental ethical norms, are American. I ask you, is it reasonable to believe that among the Pension Fund's 4,000 plus companies, from all over the world, the process has revealed that only American companies are unethical?" Whitney asked.
The ambassador argued that is was precisely American openness that put its companies at a disadvantage to firms in more "repressive societies", where complaints were harder to air and investigate.
Whitney was careful to make his suggestions in a framework of open dialogue, and to emphasize that Norway must form Norwegian policy.
"I hope my remarks, although at times critical, will be interpreted as, in fact, testimony to Norway’s admirable system of values which Norwegians try to live up to and express every day," Whitney said.
FIVE Suggestions for ethical screening:
"One, I believe the Ethics Council and the Finance Ministry should take a more systematic review of the Pension Fund portfolio and adopt a clear set of standards for the minimal level of evidence needed to start an investigation.
Two, I believe the council should set crystal-clear evidentiary standards for what it will consider credible information and stop the use of anonymous parties, unsubstantiated allegations in legal complaints, and politicized web sites.
Three, I hope the council will engage a company when an investigation begins and give it a meaningful opportunity to participate in the process from the beginning.
Four, I think the whole process should become more transparent to increase public confidence and remove opportunities for political considerations creeping into the process. If the council needs to publicly announce each investigation to avoid insider trading restrictions, then it should.
And finally, I hope legislators might consider making some of the standards for divestment clearer and to require greater procedural protections so that everyone involved in the process can operate with greater certainty and fairness." - Benson K. Whitney
Related stories: Norway dumps Wal-Mart stock - 06.06.2006 Blurry ethics on investments - 19.05.2006 Halvorsen drops Boeing - 05.01.2006 Dubious links for Petroleum Fund - 30.08.2005 Fund ethics now in focus - 09.03.2005
"But even in the non-defense cases, one hundred percent of those found guilty of serious or systematic human rights violations, guilty of desecrating the environment, of violating fundamental ethical norms, are American. I ask you, is it reasonable to believe that among the Pension Fund's 4,000 plus companies, from all over the world, the process has revealed that only American companies are unethical?" Whitney asked.Might not do any good, but it'll still leave a mark. Well done, Ambassador Whitney.
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