Civil Servant
In late 2008, it was announced that Ulleren would become the new permanent under-secretary of State in the Ministry of Agriculture and Food in 2009, succeeding Per Harald Grue who was due to retire. The permanent under-secretary of State is the highest-ranking position in a Ministry, except for the partisan positions of Minister and State Secretary. Among the tasks in the Ministry of Agriculture is to represent the state party in the annual general price settlement on agricultural produce.
The decision to appoint Ulleren was criticized by Hans Frode Asmyhr of the Progress Party for being a perceived consolidation of the Centre Party. First, the Minister who was responsible for the appointment, Lars Peder Brekk, represents the Centre Party. Second, Asmyhr insinuated that the other parties in the agricultural settlement also represented the Centre Party. While both leaders of the main farmers' interest organizations, Pål Haugstad of the Norwegian Agrarian Association and Ole-Anton Teigen of the Norwegian Farmers and Smallholders Union, did support the appointment, Teigen is an active politician for the Socialist Left Party. Lars Peder Brekk deemed Asmyhr's allegations to be "clear-cut piffle", citing that Ulleren had the necessary qualifications for the position. In addition, other politicians from opposition parties, including Leif Helge Kongshaug (Liberal) and Torbjørn Hansen (Conservative), defended the appointment of Ulleren.
Read more about this topic: Olav Ulleren, Career
Famous quotes containing the words civil and/or servant:
“We find ourselves under the government of a system of political institutions, conducing more essentially to the ends of civil and religious liberty, than any of which the history of former times tells us.”
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“If the master is easy, the servant will be slack.”
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