Norwegian Government Launches World's First Audit Commissioned by a Creditor

On August 15th, Norway's government made history by launching the world's first debt audit to be commissioned by a creditor county, as opposed to a debtor country. The report assesses the debts owed to Norway by developing countries and evaluates whether they were the result of irresponsible lending.

The findings of the report indicate that contracts were in line with lending guidelines when granted, however many of them are not consistent with current lending guidelines or the UN Principles to promote responsible lending and borrowing from the UN Conference for Trade and Development (the UNCTAD principles). The application of the UN Principles on the old loans shows that four of the 34 contracts examined were neither in line with the current guidelines nor the UN Principles. This was the case for the loans to Pakistan, Indonesia, Myanmar and Zimbabwe, and the Norwegian government assures that they will look into these debts.

Gina Ekholt of social justice organisation Norwegian Coalition for Debt Cancellation (SLUG) writes that: "Debt audits carried out by creditors using the UNCTAD principles provide a practical means to determine whether debts are in fact illegitimate and should be cancelled. The implementation of the UN Principles and the undertaking of debt audits can be decisive for developing countries struggling under unfair, odious and illegitimate debt." (http://eurodad.org/Entries/view/1545955)