MP again presses prime minister over service orders

Kringvarp Føroya reports that Liljan Weihe, a member of the Faroese parliament for Tjóðveldi, has for the third time asked the prime minister to take a position on service orders issued by Minister Jacob Vestergaard to Búnaðarstovan, the agricultural administration.

The case concerns water in Skálavík. The minister’s administration withdrew the orders after concluding that he did not have the legal authority to issue them.

Vestergaard later asked lawyer Annfinn V. Hansen to assess the legal basis for the orders. The lawyer concluded that the minister did have the authority to issue them.

Weihe says the answer she previously received from the minister is confusing. She points out that the administration in the Ministry of Business Affairs considers that there is no legal authority to issue the orders, while the minister himself has reached the opposite conclusion.

She is therefore asking the prime minister for his view on the minister’s intention to issue the same orders again, despite the administration’s assessment that they lack a legal basis. Weihe notes that the prime minister oversees government ministers and that ministers are required to carry out their duties properly and lawfully.