On March 31, 2006, I received a press release from the Norwegian National Lottery ‘Norsk Tipping’, a proud member of the European Lotteries family.

They report happily that they “are one of the first companies to have their CSR report verified by DNV, one of the world’s leading certification companies.”

Don’t bother about the abbreviations, I’ll come to that later.

The press information goes on: “The verifying is based on AA1000AS standards. The accountants from DNV looked through every single word in the CSR report, and were satisfied with the companies work in the area of social responsibility’.

So far, so good, and even better: “The Norwegian National Lottery, Norsk Tipping, gives a solid impression of being genuinely engaged with the companies work in the area social responsibility. Norsk Tipping is clearly aware of the amount of challenges attached to their high level of ambitions. The company started the implementation of its ethical mind set, but the business must continue”.

And on top of all that: “Norsk Tipping are also certified by DNV after WLA-Security Control Standards, and certified every year.”

This was the complete press bulleting.

In spite of all this ‘genuine engagement and high level of ambitions within the ethical mindset of being a socially responsible enterprise within the Norwegian society’, I did not feel ‘entirely satisfied’ with this press release. I could imagine that our readers would like to be better informed about all these impressive abbreviations and certainly about the bottom-line, the hard figures of Norsk Tipping over the year 2005.

So on Friday, March 31 I contacted Norsk Tipping’s Press Department for clarification and more information.

Apart from a full crew of junior secretaries, secretaries and assistants who could not help me, the ship of Norsk Tipping’s Press Department is staffed with the following officers:

- Senior Vice President Information and External Relations, a

- Communication Manager (interactive), a

- Press Spokesman, another

- Press Spokesman, a

- Press Spokesman/Governmental Relations, a

- Corporate Affairs Advisor, and an other

- Corporate Affairs Advisor.

Until around 4 o’clock on Friday afternoon I had not been able to reach anyone of the above mentioned officers. And by that time the crew of assistants and secretaries seemed to have abandoned the ship as well.

So I left an email.

At 21.17 o’clock I received the return mail from a Press Spokesman, stating: “We have our annual assembly on Wednesday, April 5, and I will not be able to give out financial information until then. However I promise to send you all the information you need by Wednesday morning.”

It’s the begin of May now, and I have not received a single sign of life from Norsk Tipping’s Press Department. May God save their souls.

As far as the confusing amount of abbreviations go, I owe Google great respect and gratitude. Interested readers can find a summary below, in the order as used in the press release.

CSR

CSR stands for the ‘Corporate Social Responsibility Group’.

DNV

Stands for ‘Det Norske Veritas’ (DNV). An official certifying body, to review lottery security, risk management systems and to monitor compliance with the WLA (World Lottery Association) Security Control Standards.

AA1000AS

More information about the AA1000 Assurance Standard can be found at www.accountability.org.uk.

This standard was launched on March 25, 2003, following an “extensive international consultation process, drawing on the practical experience and perspectives of business, public and civil society sectors”.