Report: Transparency in Norwegian Public Administration

The client was the Ministry of Digitalisation and Public Governance (DFD), which has the overarching responsibility for coordinating transparency efforts, including Norway’s participation in the international collaboration Open Government Partnership (OGP).

Democracies around the world are under pressure, and transparency in administrative processes is a cornerstone of well-functioning democracies. Access to information is crucial for freedom of expression, trust, financial integrity, and for counteracting corruption and abuse of power, while also making government decisions accountable. The report provides advice on how the government can further develop transparency efforts and highlights both strengths and challenges in current practice.

Method

Halogen’s work is based on insights from 15 semi-structured in-depth interviews with key individuals in the public administration, civil society, and academia. Informants included representatives from ministries (including DFD, the Ministry of Justice, and the Ministry of Finance), directorates, public supervisory authorities, OGP’s international secretariat, and several civil society organizations such as Transparency International Norway and the Norwegian Union of Journalists.

The interview insights were analyzed through thematic analysis to uncover key underlying themes and cross-cutting connections. A substantial body of documents was also reviewed, including legislative proposals, white papers, Official Norwegian Reports (NOU), concept selection studies, Norway’s OGP action plans, and various reports and evaluations. The findings were validated and challenged through co-creation workshops with around participants from public administration and civil society in Norway’s OGP stakeholder forum.

Status of Norwegian Transparency Efforts in Six Areas

The work explored several thematic areas that have been highly prioritized in Norway’s OGP action plans. Some have seen follow-up efforts, others less so. The report examines the current status and what is needed to move forward:

• Access to public documents and decision-making processes.
  This is a central theme in transparency efforts and has been included in most Norwegian OGP action plans. Norway has been, and remains, internationally advanced in establishing a public electronic registry of incoming and outgoing documents and the access solution e-innsyn. The report shows that there are significant challenges related to prioritizing transparency efforts and ensuring consistent practice.

• Information about ownership of companies and property.
  This is an important topic both internationally and in Norway’s transparency efforts. Although it has taken time, Norway now has a register of beneficial owners. Concept selection studies (KVU) have also been carried out to establish systems for access to information on both share ownership and property ownership.

• Transparency in public procurement processes.
  Norway has regulations that impose strict requirements on suppliers, regulate public tender processes, and provide access to these processes up until contracts are awarded. However, there is a lack of access to knowledge and data on public procurements after the competition has been concluded.

• Anti-corruption strategy.
  In March 2024, the government presented a white paper on the prevention and combatting of economic crime. Whether Norway has clearly placed cross-sectoral responsibility in this area is discussed in the report.

• Access to criminal case processes.
  Press organizations experience difficulties gaining access to police criminal case documents, which they believe challenges their ability to act as a “public watchdog.” Fragmented and insufficiently modernized legislation, along with slow digitalization in the criminal justice chain and the courts, are among the reasons.

• Increased digital participation.
  Digital participation is a broad topic covering digital competence, measures against digital exclusion, access to public information, universal design of digital services, and more. The report points to the need to establish digital solutions that ensure more equal access to public services and information, and not least access to one’s own data.

Five Main Findings

The analysis, document review, and workshop revealed five main findings regarding the status of transparency in Norwegian public administration:

1. Transparency is deprioritized due to time pressure and weak incentives.
The most urgent matters—often those of political leadership—are prioritized first. Transparency and access requests take time and are placed further back in the queue. Informants point out that systems for record-keeping and archiving are cumbersome, employees often lack knowledge of the legal framework and its practical application, and receive limited professional support. There is a perceived greater risk in disclosing confidential information than in withholding information that could have been shared.

2. Transparency is vital for democracy but challenged by other societal considerations.
Ambitions for transparency must be balanced against other important considerations, particularly citizens’ right to privacy, national security concerns, and the protection of companies’ business data. These are real and difficult goal conflicts that must be balanced wisely in everyday practice.

3. Key framework conditions surrounding public administration may hinder desired transparency.
The main problem is not resistance to transparency, but that regulations and digital systems do not sufficiently facilitate it. In some areas, data do not exist at all, or they are not available in a format that allows sharing. Legislation is not always consistent or up to date.

4. We need arenas for transparency work that lead to real change.
Informants call for collaborative arenas within the public administration and between civil society and government that lead to concrete changes. There is a need for meetings where actual decision-makers from the administration participate.

5. Norway performs well on transparency but has much to learn from other countries.
Norway scores highly internationally, partly thanks to legislation that ensures transparency in important areas such as environmental information, tax information, and access to e-innsyn, the public electronic records system. At the same time, there are areas with limited investment in proactive transparency measures. The Baltic countries, Denmark, and Finland are highlighted as frontrunners in digital solutions that ensure transparency, including in the procurement field.

Submission to the Ministry

The report, finalized on 18 August 2025, was presented and discussed by State Secretary Annette Kristine Davidsen at the Ministry of Digitalisation and Public Governance and Paul Chaffey from Halogen during an open meeting at DOGA on 2 September 2025.

In connection with the report, Minister of Digitalisation and Public Governance Karianne Tung stated:

“We will take the report’s content with us as a valuable contribution in our efforts to strengthen transparency in public administration. We will begin updating the national action plan for transparency in 2026, and the report will serve as an important foundation for that work.”

Download the report here