The myth of corruption-free Denmark (2023)
16 April 2023 André Rossmann Denmark's challenges, corruption
In the national self-perception, the Danes are the least corrupt people in the world. This confirms Denmark's fine ranking in Transparency International's corruption index. The Danes therefore agree with themselves and the outside world that they are too clean for something as dirty and banana-state-like as corruption. However, the story of a corruption-free Denmark is nothing more than a myth.
The standards are sliding at the top
There is a norm slide and moral decay underway at the top of Danish society. This applies to the changing governments, the Parliament and the central administration, which are thoroughly corrupted by abuse of office, abuse of power, greed, cronyism and abdication of responsibility. The shift in norms shows, among other things, knowing that professionalism has been replaced by political cunning, that decisions are made without legal authority, that text messages are deleted in the Prime Minister's Office to destroy evidence, that the villains investigate themselves and that no one is held accountable for even the worst failures. It would hardly have happened in the classic central administration characterized from top to bottom by professionalism, thoroughness and orderliness. And once the norms progress at the top, they propagate down through the political system to regions, municipalities and citizens.
Corrupt parliamentary politicians
The list of corrupt parliamentary politicians is long. We all remember the former Conservative Minister of Economy and Business Bendt Bendtsen, whose hunting and golf trips were paid for by Danfoss and Danisco. And Ritt Bjerregaard's apartment in Christianshavn. And Troels Lund Poulsen (possibly future Venstre chairman), who as tax minister received a Rolex watch from an oil sheik. And Research Minister Esben Lunde Larsen's attempt to use his parliamentary mandate to promote a wind turbine case in which he himself and his family had financial interests. And Climate and Energy Minister Martin Lidegaard, who went ahead with a law on solar cells, even though the ministry knew that there was a loophole in the law. And Social Affairs Minister Annette Vilhelmsen, who has granted 1 million DKK to Lisbeth Zornig and her project 'Voices on the edge'. And Danish EU politicians who raise their allowances for meetings they have not attended. And Denmark's former prime minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, who as chairman of the climate organization GGGI has flown first class nine times, had CGGI pay his daughter's plane ticket for 27,000 DKK and let Venstre finance its suits. And Henrik Sass Larsen, who has announced that he is on sick leave, but has kept his favorable earnings as state auditor. He received a good 30,000 kroner a month on top of the parliamentary salary, so his income rounded to 1 million kroner. DKK per year. The list of corrupt politicians is long. Their behavior would have been called 'corruption' if it had taken place in a country other than Denmark.
Disguised party donations
There is nothing odious about party support, but voters must have the opportunity to follow who donates larger amounts to the parties. However, not in Denmark. The rules on party support are widely circumvented in Denmark, i.a. by dividing donations into smaller portions to keep donors anonymous. The hidden money flows in Danish politics mean that an unhealthy financial dependence arises between the parties and the rich donors, who gain more influence simply because they have more money than others.
The disguised party donations in Denmark have on several occasions led Greco, which is the Council of Europe's intergovernmental cooperation to combat corruption, to criticize Denmark for a lack of measures to prevent corruption among politicians. Greco demands i.a. a system which makes it easier to see which financial interests the elected politicians have. In addition, the body is calling for a set of ethical rules for members of parliament. But every time Greco's criticism is met with a wall of silence from the parliament politicians. It is especially the Left and the Social Democrats who stand together to defend the current rules, which give the opportunity to circumvent the law and receive party support anonymously.
Purchase of exclusive access to top politicians
The parliamentary parties' business clubs, which raise donations for election campaigns and campaigns, are surrounded by suspicion and accusations of nepotism, cheating and cronyism. The clubs function by the fact that private individuals, companies and interest organizations sign up and are invited to meetings with top politicians and ministers at intervals. For that, they pay around DKK 20,000 a year, because that is the amount limit for anonymous contributions to parties. In return for the payment, the anonymous members get exclusive access to top politicians. It goes without saying that donations lead to the politicians being brought into some kind of dependency relationship. In addition, the ministers, in violation of the law, use their officials to prepare presentations for the meetings, which raises doubts about what is fundraising and party work, and what is taxpayer-paid ministerial service.
Conflicts of interest when politicians change jobs
Denmark is one of the few European countries that does not have rules on conflicts of interest when changing jobs between politics and business. When politicians jump from one side of the table to the other, there is a risk of misuse of confidential information, of discrimination and of corruption. Furthermore, a conflict of interest can arise when the top politician still carries out his duties for the national government, while he is in a job search process with a new employer on the way. Denmark is such a small country that the door does not have to swing in and out very many times before a closed space emerges, where the same people within a limited number of years fill very different roles in the political system, and thus have the opportunity to opaquely exchanging confidential knowledge and friend favors.
Misuse of public funds by politicians
When a majority in the Folketing in 2016 granted the politicians in Christiansborg a salary increase of 40 per cent, it was on the grounds that there was greater work pressure and media pressure on politicians, and that this increased the need for professionals who could help the politicians deal with the pressure and with controlling the government and developing policy. However, it appeared from Venstre's accounts that the party had not used the increased grant to resist increased media pressure or prepare new policy. Venstre has spent DKK 8,127,538 on 'printed matter, ads, etc.', i.e. a pure campaign business which does not contribute to better decisions, but just provides more marketing, advertising and competition for voters.
Corruption in the Prime Minister's Office
Corruption is not only bribery, fraud, fraud or nepotism, but to a great extent also abuse of office – abuse of entrusted power, public office or public funds. A clear example of abuse of office in the Prime Minister's Office was Mette Frederiksen's and her head of department Barbara Bertelsen's targeted and deliberate deletion of text messages, which has meant that the commission that was supposed to investigate the progress of the mink case came to lack evidence that could potentially be decisive. Barbara Bertelsen has also used her position and power to receive special treatment from the Copenhagen Police. It happened when she, as a private person, reported a case of street disorder near her home in Copenhagen. Barbara Bertelsen's report was processed in just 29 days, while similar cases had an average processing time of around 300 days.
Corruption in the Ministry of Defence
Abuse of office, abuse of power, fraud, bribery and nepotism are systemic in the Ministry of Defence. No less than five top managers have been involved in serious personal matters. The former army chief Hans-Christian Mathiesen was charged with dereliction of duty and abuse of office in order to promote his girlfriend's career in the army. Chief of Defense Bjørn Bisserup paved the way for a number of employees, including the Chief of Defense's own son, to start at the Army's Officers' School sooner than otherwise planned. In 2016, Head of Department in the Ministry of Defense Thomas Ahrenkiel was involved in awarding a one-off remuneration and allowance to the ministry's then head of press, with whom he then had a relationship and is now married. Laila Reenberg, director of the Ministry of Defence's Personnel Agency, 'forgot' to notify her superior when her own spouse was awarded an attractive command position in the Norwegian Navy. And the director of finance in Værnsfælles Forsvarskommando, Anja Erichsens, helped award large one-off payments to her boyfriend, who is a lieutenant colonel and battalion commander in the Army. The auditor corps has handed over the case to the police.
At a consultation in the Danish Parliament's Defense Committee, the former Minister of Defense Trine Bramsen (S) said that the senior management of the Defense and the Ministry of Defense would avoid the consequences of turning a blind eye to fraud, abuse of power and nepotism, as it was a hopeless case. 'The problem is that we then have the next bosses. Does it make it better? I sort of doubt that', said Bramsen.
Corruption in the Ministry of Culture
Denmark already has a tech ambassador in Silicon Valley, but according to Minister of Culture Ane Halsboe-Jørgensen (S) it was very important that she was the one who handed over a letter to representatives of Facebook, Instagram and YouTube - and that's why she had to fly to California in business class to convey an official request from the Danish government for greater openness. EkstraBladet described the trip after the newspaper had found out that between two official visits – first to Silicon Valley and then to the Oscars – the minister had been on a road trip with his special adviser. Exhibits showed that the ministry (ie the taxpayers) had paid for petrol, luxury hotel accommodation, parking and restaurant bills.
The Norwegian Art Fund's committee members decide which artists and art projects should be part of the annual half a billion kroner, and which should not. According to Politiken, the members, who themselves work in the cultural industry, have at least 25 times applied for and received support for their own projects and institutions.
The Film Institute, which belongs to the Ministry of Culture, aims to promote film art, film culture and cinema culture in Denmark. It is therefore contrary to the Film Act that several board members of the Danish Film Institute (DFI), which distributes millions of kroner each year to Danish film and TV productions, also sit on the boards of companies that have received support from DFI in particular . According to the Film Act, members of DFI's board of directors may not be representatives of, employed by or financially interested in companies for the production, rental or screening of films or hold positions of trust in the film industry. The chairman of the board of DFI, Anders Kronborg, played dumb and said that 'it was not something he had thought of'.
Corruption in the Ministry of Education and Research
Since the Innovation Fund is a state fund under the Ministry of Education and Research, it must act according to the rules of the game for legality and propriety that apply to state institutions. Carlsberg's powerful chairman of the board and former deputy chairman of the Innovation Fund, Flemming Besenbacher, has taken a big view of this, as he has been involved in illegally distributing millions of tax kroner for research and securing millions of dollars in support for projects where the participants are researchers or institutions for which he had a personal belong to. Put in plain Danish, he has used his position as chairman of the board to promote his own interests. The barrister believed that there could be a question of liability.
In the
Ministry of Fisheries, there have been major problems in complying with completely elementary rules, including the requirement for objective allocation of fishing quotas. The government and the fisheries authorities have secretly given some of the country's largest mussel fishermen unique access to fish tons of blue mussels in the Great Belt, which smacks of corruption. The case of cheating with fishing quotas was raised after the National Audit Office in 2017 expressed criticism of the then Ministry of Fisheries for a lack of control over the quota rules. This then led to the then Environment and Fisheries Minister Esben Lunde Larsen (V) losing the fisheries area from his portfolio.
According to Michael Gøtze, professor of administrative law at the University of Copenhagen, the course of the case testified to a particularly problematic culture at the fisheries authorities. 'It seems that there are problems with fundamental legal requirements such as e.g. objective allocation of fishing quotas, fairness and professionalism in the way applications are handled. One gets the impression that it has run relatively informally, and that the administrative apparatus surrounding the trial scheme in question has been close to the minimum and with a correspondingly limited focus on equality before the law. We are not talking about problems with individual slip-ups, but about problems with the culture itself', said Michael Gøtze.
Corruption in the Ministry of Food
Deliberate misuse of public funds is corruption. The Danish Agency for Agriculture and the Ministry of Food have been guilty of this, as they have been aware for 16 years that agricultural subsidies were paid that should not have been paid. The Danish Agency for Agriculture has not had control over whether farmers have made an artificial division of their holdings in order to circumvent a ceiling on how much subsidy and support could be paid out. The Danish Agency for Agriculture pays out around DKK 7 billion. DKK per year in subsidies and support for agriculture. The majority of the money comes directly from the EU, and with it comes a set of rules for control, which the Danish Agency for Agriculture is obliged to follow. Since 2005, the Danish Agency for Agriculture has been aware that money may have been paid out to agriculture that circumvented the rules. Even so, control has not been strengthened.
Corruption in the National Police
When performance contracts were introduced in the police in 2007, this meant that instead of chasing criminals, they now had to chase results and target figures for the National Police's statistics. From a report 'Hoaxes or facts', which the Police Association and the National Police have prepared on the basis of interviews with approx. 120 officers from 12 stations, it appeared that '45 men were summoned in one case and had to stop everyone on the way to print enough cases. Another time, officers had to create 291 cases on a person who had made 291 fake tickets, so that in the statistics it became 291 solved cases. A third episode is about a man sending 400 apparently less loving text messages to his ex-girlfriend. It was entered into the statistics as 400 conditions. And then the police had suddenly reached their targets'.
A former head of department in the National Police has been dismissed twice in two years. The first time because she was a fixed-term employee, which allows public managers to receive severance pay even if they stay in the position. She received the second golden handshake in connection with her resignation after it had emerged that she had entered into illegal contracts with consultants for approx. 43.3 million DKK Approx. 1 million DKK she has received within 2 years of resigning, and she is not alone. 42 chiefs in the police have received just over DKK 10.1 million. DKK in i.a. resignations – even if they have not stopped working. Furthermore, the National Police has admitted that it has been found that only a good 38 per cent. of 240 concluded contracts with private suppliers comply with the tender rules. In the National Police's Group Service, department head Bettina Jensen has secured consulting assignments for two of her friends for more than DKK 20 million. DKK in just three years. The tasks were – contrary to the law – never put out to tender, and the friends' fees were paid without contracts and without prior budget approval.
Bonuses and performance pay
As we know, power corrupts, which is clearly evident within the powerful state aristocracy of the public sector. In DR's documentary series 'The Expensive Directors', taxpayers were able to get a rare insight into a corrupt culture at the top of the public administration, where the DJØF elite of politicians and civil servants hand out privileges and bonuses to each other in pure pampering. Unjustified severance pay for municipal directors who do not resign from their positions, golden handshakes in the million range and explosive salary increases are the order of the day.
The Danish state is founded on the principle that civil servants must never have personal, financial interests in the performance of their office or in the administration of laws and regulations. A principle which must ensure that civil servants only look after the state's interests and not their own. That principle has been broken with the introduction of performance pay and bonus schemes. They are deeply problematic because they inevitably create a more or less corrupt culture among public leaders.
Until recently, the powerful heads of department at Slotsholmen could be awarded an annual bonus on the basis of their 'effort, results and qualifications'. But the payment was more or less automatic. Berlingske has reviewed all overviews of the heads of department's salaries from 2012 to 2021. The review shows that they almost always received a bonus. The bonuses did not reflect the individual performance of the individual head of department, but were a ritual exercise and an increase in the basic salary. The head of department in the Prime Minister's Office, Barbara Bertelsen, was given e.g. DKK 125,000 in one-off remuneration for her work in 2020, just a few months after all mink in Denmark were euthanized and that she had advised on the deletion of text messages, which, as is well known, later developed into a case of rubbish for the Prime Minister. In 2022, the bonuses were made permanent by making them a fixed part of the salary.
Many public managers receive the same bonus every year. They are obviously capable of delivering the same extraordinary performances year after year. A study of the salary conditions for 124 managers in the public agencies carried out by researchers from Aarhus University shows that there is no connection between the large bonuses and the extent to which the top managers have achieved the goals that were set at the start of the year. In the state, it is considered an achievement in itself to look after one's work. Public managers also receive bonuses when they do not deliver results. In 2016, three directors in Banedanmark were paid bonuses of DKK 100,000-125,000, even though they had not reached the targets set in connection with the bonus agreement.
An investigation carried out in 2019 showed that the state had never previously had an overview of the widespread practice of performance-based pay. This despite the fact that the scheme was introduced in 1988. At no time has the civil service examined the scope of performance pay or compliance with the rules. No politicians or public leaders have evidently found it necessary to supervise the use of taxpayers' money. And it's not because it's just small change. In 2016 alone, the state used DKK 663 million. DKK on bonuses for public managers. No one has ensured that this money was used responsibly and according to the applicable rules.
Corruption in the regions and municipalities
The number of public scandals reveals deep rot and corrupt management culture in Denmark, which otherwise prides itself on being the world's least corrupt country. A large number of public authorities were thus entangled in the largest bribery case in Danish history, the Atea case. 55 people have been charged in the extensive bribery case, including either current or former employees of, among others, The Municipality of Copenhagen, the Post Office, the Armed Forces, DSB, 3A-it, the National Police, Region Zealand, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Attorney General, DONG, the Defense Intelligence Service and the Correctional Service. From their jobs in ministries, agencies and other public authorities, they have received gifts in the form of mobile phones, tablets and other electronic equipment, visits to gourmet restaurants, luxury trips to Dubai, hotel stays, etc.
At a large conference on public procurement, which the IKA Association of public purchasers held in 2017, a number of private companies have lured the approx. 500 buyers from the state, regions and municipalities with prizes such as hotel stays and gift baskets. Since public servants are not allowed to receive gifts from private suppliers, the bribery has been camouflaged as a competition and raffle.
The members of the Capital Region's so-called diabetes committee have for several years received fees and shares from various pharmaceutical companies, primarily Novo Nordisk. It is obvious that when the doctors have ties to the pharmaceutical industry, their recommendations can be neither objective nor neutral.
In 2014, the abuse of research funds by prominent senior doctors at Rigshospitalet and other hospitals in the Capital Region was uncovered. The irregularities ranged from extravagant spending at restaurants and hotels to the purchase of art, furniture, wine and expensive designer glasses, annual salmon fishing trips in the Norwegians, payment of private debts and fees for spouses and children. 76 researchers were included in the study, which was carried out by the executive committee in the Capital Region. The cases have led to a number of police reports, charges and dismissals.
Nepotistic hiring has taken place in around 50 daycare centers in the Municipality of Copenhagen. The former Lord Mayor Frank Jensen and his top officials have tried to push Internal Audit, which has unearthed a number of inflammatory cases in the municipality.
At the end of September 2014, 42 politicians, managers and administrative consultants from the school area in Horsens Municipality went on a study trip to Canada. Later, 60 deputy inspectors and supervisors followed. The price was approx. DKK 24,000 per participants corresponding to almost 2.5 million DKK. The Parliament has carried out a survey which shows that 29 municipalities have had delegations in Canada. A total of 725 local politicians, officials and school staff have been on a trip to Canada at a total cost of DKK 11.5 million. DKK In the 1990s the trip went to New Zealand and Finland, in the 00s to Asia and Singapore. Education professor Per Fibæk Laursen from Aarhus University says that no one can demonstrate concrete educational results in schools from such expensive study trips to distant countries. The real explanation for the expensive municipal trips can only be that they are far more exotic and enjoyable than a cheap bus trip to the neighboring municipality to exchange experiences.
In every third municipality, the politicians come a long way when they need to be inspired for their political work. To New York, Toronto, Singapore – just name it. This is evident from an inspection of documents that Jyllands-Posten has obtained from 87 of the country's 98 municipalities. The material shows that most municipalities go on study trips within Europe's borders, but 33 municipalities – corresponding to one in three – have sent local politicians outside of Europe at least once. In Aarhus, city councilors have thus been on over 25 trips abroad, including to Canada, the USA and China. Together, the politicians in Aarhus have traveled for more than DKK 1.7 million. At the beginning of 2018, it emerged that directors and board members of a number of municipal and semi-public heating, electricity and waste companies have spent huge sums on luxury trips abroad. All at the expense of consumers.
The independent online media NB Kommune has reported that the municipalities use tax-funded spin people to embellish the municipal reality, which is misuse of taxpayers' money - in plain Danish: corruption. An estimate from NB Municipality shows that there are now at least 632 people working with mediation in the country's municipalities. This is explosive growth. In 2004, three out of four municipalities had no communications staff at all. It is the same development that is seen in Christiansborg, where an army of spin experts has occupied both ministries and the political parties. In politics, it is all about controlling history all the time, so that reality appears most advantageous to oneself. The Danes are therefore served an image of a municipal Disneyland with happy children in well-run children's institutions and schools, satisfied pensioners, well-functioning infrastructure, new parks and success in the local sports clubs. The conclusion is that the population ends up with a false, tax-financed glossy image of reality.
In all the examples above, we are talking about misuse of public funds - in plain Danish called corruption. The remarkable thing is that the corruption is completely legal and that no one in Denmark questions it. There are many examples of a public take-home board and a lack of care in the handling of entrusted funds. But in Denmark, which is world famous for its hygge, legalized misuse of public funds is not perceived as actual corruption, but as innocent hygge corruption.
It is part of the picture that Denmark is a small country where everyone knows everyone, and where it can be particularly difficult to prevent close personal ties between the civil service, the politicians and the business world. According to Transparency International's 2021 report, 25 per cent of the Danes surveyed that within the past 12 months they have used personal connections when they have had to use the public sector. One in four also believes that corruption in Denmark is increasing.
Corruption in the trade union movement
For decades, senior employees from Falck and 3F have traveled to warm climes in USA and Nicaragua prior to collective agreement negotiations. Critics call it cronyism, while the parties themselves call it common practice. Professor Henning Jørgensen from Aalborg University, who is one of the country's leading trade union experts, calls the trips problematic. 'We end up in an ethical quagmire. When you travel with those with whom you have to negotiate agreements, you have to ask if the role definition becomes unclear. This is not normal practice. It looks like some camaraderie with someone you actually have to fight with about agreements, and it will look like a couple dancing ballet rather than the boxing match that is agreement negotiations', he says.
If agreements are hammered out over a drink in Nicaragua, then the process smells more of camaraderie and covert agreements than the openness and mutual trust that the much-vaunted Danish model is said to be characterized by. The widespread pampering and cronyism in the trade union movement means that one can raise doubts about whether employers and employees can have confidence that their interests will be taken care of seriously during collective bargaining.
Corruption in Denmark's Radio
It caused outrage when it emerged in 2017 that DR had paid nearly DKK 70,000 for the transport of journalist Johannes Langkilde's wife's horse across the Atlantic in connection with Langkilde's employment as a US correspondent. And that DR's news director, Ulrik Haagerup, has spent DKK 571,841 over three years flying to work at the DR headquarters in Copenhagen from his home in Jutland. It didn't help the situation either, when it became known that the former media director, Gitte Rabøl, could keep his large salary in a new position as 'diversity consultant', which DR chairman Michael Christiansen had difficulty explaining the content of.
Corruption in business
The list of scams and scams in business grows and grows. It includes not only unknown companies, but also Danish icon companies such as FLSmidth, Mærsk, Hempel, Novo Nordisk, Burmeister & Wain Scandinavian Contractor, Carl Bro Gruppen, SAS, Danfoss, Grundfos and Atea.
Eight Danish banks helped bank customers to arrange themselves in tax shelters. The banks' internal audit and control departments have not checked whether the banks' customers are using accounts for tax evasion purposes, despite the fact that the banks otherwise emphasize to the outside world that they make a great effort in this area. A good 1,500 billion DKK, which, according to the authorities of several countries, originates from criminal activity, was in the period 2006-2015 taken to tax havens via accounts in Danske Bank and Nordea. For 12 years, Jyske Bank had Rifaat al Assad, the uncle of Syria's dictator Bashar al Assad, as a customer in the bank's branch in Gibraltar.
Denmark has a long tradition of cartel formation, and the number of cartel fines is rising sharply. Many of the largest cartel cases in Denmark have taken place in the construction industry. In Denmark's by far the largest cartel case, 33 construction companies have been suspected of illegal coordination of prices. 17 companies have chosen to accept fines of over DKK 25 million. DKK. But other industries can also participate. In the cartel case in the demolition industry in 2016, a number of the largest Danish demolition companies have been suspected of having shared information about each other's prices for years. Between 10-20 people and companies have been charged. Luftfartsselskabet SAS has been involved in cartel cases twice. Most recently, SAS was fined 70.2 million euros by the EU Commission in a major cartel case on freight prices. And in 2017, Carlsberg and Royal Unibrew were accused of coordinating prices and deliveries in Greenland.
In 2021, 18 discotheques and their joint purchasing company were fined up to DKK 278,000 for forming a cartel. They have had agreements not to open branches in each other's cities or within a 20 km radius of each other. Some agreements have been in place for over 15 years. It is the purchasing company NOX Network and 18 discotheques, mainly located in Jutland, that have acknowledged the offence. The violations have taken place for periods ranging from just under two years and up to 15 years. The fines were between DKK 28,000 and DKK 278,000.
Mistakes are made on the assembly line in Danish business when it comes to tax. In fact, almost seven out of ten Danish companies with less than 250 employees report incorrect figures to the tax authorities. Exactly 68 per cent fail. of the companies. And even if the majority are simple mistakes that are due to a lack of knowledge and not ill will, 12 per cent are of the companies - i.e. one in eight - involved in such gross errors that it can be interpreted by the Tax Agency as punishable attempts to defraud.
The Danes, and especially Danish farmers, are such upright and nice people that you can easily reduce the control of the aid millions that the EU system sends up to Denmark. This remarkable message has come from Venstre's EU parliamentarian, Morten Løkkegaard, who said in DR that 'one should not control the wrong people. When you are already the duke in the class, and all experience shows that the Danes and the Danish projects are, then there is no reason to take a huge control system over it'. Such. We already know the villains - they live down in Southern Europe somewhere. Løkkegaard's message is not bought in the EU. The Union's anti-fraud office, Olaf, has registered Danish fraud cases for over DKK 200 million over five years. DKK, with especially Danish farmers as the culprits.
The culprits investigate themselves
You might think that it is only in corrupt banana republics that the guilty investigate themselves, but they do so to a large extent in Denmark as well. In 2010, the Norwegian Armed Forces Audit Corps thus failed to go to Afghanistan to investigate the alleged killing of a five-year-old child by Danish soldiers. Instead, the auditors left it to the Danish military police in Helmand province to question soldiers and the victim's family. The interrogations were sent to the auditors, who in a report have cleared the soldiers of having done something wrong. The auditors have an independent status, and the military police do not. This therefore means that the military has examined itself.
'We have made mistakes, but have otherwise followed the law'. This is what the Norwegian Working Environment Authority concluded in 2011 in a report on the poisoning scandal at LM Wind Power, where thousands of workers have been exposed to the toxic substance styrene. Flemming Ibsen, professor at the Center for Labor Market Research at Aalborg University, believed that it was 'deeply problematic' that the Norwegian Working Environment Authority and the Norwegian Working Injuries Agency had investigated themselves. He believed that it was an expected acquittal.
In 2014, the police investigated themselves in cases of fire investigation where innocent people could have been convicted. 'It would have been better if an impartial party had investigated whether the police's fire investigation is good enough. The investigation is thorough, but when several experts both at home and abroad say that there have been serious mistakes in parts of the investigation, it is relevant that there are impartial people who investigate it', said Martin Henriksen (DF) to DR.
In September 2015, Djøf's Bo Smith committee came up with its report on the modern civil servant. According to Michael Gøtze, professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Copenhagen, it appears that this is a party submission in support of the acquittal of the incompetent civil service apparatus.
In connection with the scandal in SKAT – also in 2015 – it was the Ministry of Taxation's internal audit, and not external impartial experts, who investigated the matter.
If a citizen wants to complain that the police e.g. has arrested the citizen, handcuffed him or thrown him into detention, the citizen must complain to the officer's chief, i.e. the director of police. These kinds of complaints make up more than half of all complaints about the police, according to a report made by DR2 Dokumentar in May 2018. Thus, the majority of complaints about the police are not dealt with by the Independent Police Complaints Authority (DUP), which was established in 2010 to strengthen people's trust that their complaint will be handled correctly and independently by the police.
In the teledata scandal in 2019, the Ministry of Justice investigated itself. Inger Støjberg, who was justice rapporteur for Venstre, wanted an impartial investigation into the teledata scandal. 'After all, there are people who are left behind, who ask themselves what kind of legal system we have. What we are witnessing is authorities investigating themselves. It is a Ministry of Justice that has examined itself and says that they just have to learn from their mistakes. It must be investigated much more thoroughly', said Inger Støjberg to TV2 News.
Most recently, following Berlingske's revelations about lost 112 calls, the politicians in the Capital Region adopted a draft for an internal investigation. It's just that the investigation had to be carried out by the region itself instead of external experts. 'Can you imagine other places where the accused is allowed to investigate his case himself? It is now and here that the region should show that it has the courage and will to put everything before external experts and get a completely unbiased assessment', said Finn Rudaizky, member of the regional council for the Danish People's Party.
Danish whistleblowers live a dangerous life
According to the whistleblower organization Blueprint for Free Speech, Denmark occupies a not particularly flattering place as number last in Europe when it comes to the real protection of whistleblowers who reveal corruption.
In several cases, the authorities have e.g. passed on confidential information about notifications of possible money laundering to the companies that have been in the spotlight. This has been concluded by FSR, the auditors' trade association, on the basis of inquiries from its members. The former director of the organisation, Charlotte Jepsen, has criticized the authorities' actions in the cases. 'The information is subject to confidentiality and non-disclosure for the person who informs, and therefore it is of course a serious problem both for the auditors and others - but also for legal certainty - that this kind of information is passed on', she said.
You might think that Danish diplomacy is the epitome of integrity, but even Danish diplomats cover up corruption. In 2019, Carlsberg's business partner in India and Nepal approached the Danish embassy in Singapore, where he warned that corruption and other possible illegalities were taking place in the brewery group. But instead of reporting the matter to the authorities, the ambassador chose to inform Carlsberg's Danish headquarters directly about both the content of the inquiry and the identity of the whistleblower.
Denmark has not adopted employment law provisions or other types of laws that protect whistleblowers against reprisals or dismissal. As a Danish citizen, you should therefore think carefully before contacting the Danish authorities with information about illegal activities. If you discover corruption and fraud at your workplace, it is wisest to look the other way.
The myth of the corruption-free Dane
When the myth of the corruption-free Dane is alive and well, it is because Transparency International's measurements are based on the subjective and highly colored assessments of the level of corruption in Denmark by Danish 'country experts'. It goes without saying that the 'country experts' use a propagandistic filter to portray Denmark in as positive a light as possible. Transparency International Denmark then forwards the experts' assessment of corruption in public Denmark to the head office, which takes it for granted. This is how the false image of Denmark as the least corrupt country in the world is built up.
The fact that Denmark is still number 1 is partly due to the fact that corruption in the private sector is not measured and included, and partly to the fact that many Danish corruption scandals are only mentioned in the local, Danish-language media. Without international publicity, no impact on Denmark's ranking in the corruption index. The list of conditions Transparency International does NOT include is long. This applies, for example, to conditions such as tax fraud, VAT fraud, bribery, cartels, money laundering, illegal work, etc.
Just imagine if the following corruption cases in the private sector were included in the Danish country experts' assessment: the Atea case, Nordea's shady banking dealings in the Panama Papers, Danske Bank's money laundering in Estonia, nepotism in the Armed Forces, fraud with dividend tax in the Ministry of Taxation and invoice fraud in the Defense Property Agency for just to name a few examples. All of this goes under the radar in Transparency International's corruption index. If that type of corruption was included in the index, Denmark would immediately lose its fine ranking.
The level of corruption cannot be proven
Although Transparency International claims that it can measure the level of corruption in Denmark, according to Christian Bjørnskov, who is professor of economics at Aarhus University and has researched corruption, it is really impossible to measure the level of corruption in a country on the basis of empirical data. There have been attempts to do so by comparing the number of fines, trials and convictions for corruption. However, the figures cannot be regarded as reliable measures of the level of corruption, but rather as an expression of how effectively a country's media, prosecution and courts detect, investigate and prosecute corruption.
Denmark is downgraded to 'moderately corrupt'
In 2021, Transparency International has placed Denmark, which for several years has been placed in the category with a 'low' risk of corruption, in the 'moderately corrupt' category, together with countries such as Italy, Columbia, France and India. This is due to the significant increase in cases of corruption, fraud, abuse of office and nepotism in the defense sector, especially in the personnel sector and in arms procurement. Transparency International points to, among other things that there is a 'very high risk' of corruption in connection with Denmark's missions abroad, where the employees lack both precautions and training to avoid corruption, and that the Ministry of Defense abuses sections of the Public Disclosure Act to keep documents secret.
Power corrupts. It does so in all countries. Also in Denmark.
The actual corruption in this country is more widespread than you think. However, it is often handled internally and thus under the public's radar. The corruption that you hear about in the Danish media is therefore only the tip of the iceberg.
The parallels to the Second World War are becoming more and more obvious. Sweden is allowed to play "neutral" again and Finland to the front.
Pipeline Finland - Estonia,
