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Secretariat
The Russian offices
During the period covered by this evaluation the Barents Secretariat had four field offices – originally information offices – in the Russian part of the BEAR, in Murmansk, Arkhangelsk, Narian-Mar and Petrozavodsk (31 December 2007 the office in Petrozavodsk was closed). The offices were established to serve the Norwegian-Russian project co-operation and also assist other Norwegian-Russian co-operation in the region. The offices provide BarentsObserver.com with local and regional news items. At times the offices assist local initiators preparing applications, and sometimes they are asked by the Barents Secretariat in Kirkenes to write a note on a specific application. On the whole, however, the Norwegian Barents Secretariat’s offices in Russia have not had a very active role in identifying promising individuals, groups or institutions for project application. Neither have they had an active role in the processing of project applications and follow-up of project activities.
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The final decision on what project proposals to approve is made by the Barents Secretariat’s board, in which the MFA is an observer. In other words, the MFA leaves the processing of project application, approval and follow-up of project implementation to an organisation not formally controlled by the ministry (the three North Norwegian regions). Hypothetically, the central government and the regional authorities might differ as to their priorities. So far, however, the possibility of discrepancies has not caused problems. The guidelines set by the MFA for the Barents Secretariat’s grant programme have been general and open. The MFA is represented in the Barents Secretariat Board as an observer, and the communication between the MFA and the Barents Secretariat is good. On the other hand, the open and general guidelines for the project co-operation may complicate the monitoring of the funds. As a result of recommendations from the Office of the Auditor General in 2007, performance measures will be introduced. This implies that the objectives of the project co-operation will have to be formulated in a more specific way than what has been the case so
