Local government owned rehabilitation enterprises, accounts (discontinued), 1995-1999

In 1999 around 240 local government-owned rehabilitation enterprises were listed in the Brønnøysund Register Centre.

Increasing number of local government-owned rehabilitation enterprises

There was a large increase in the number of rehabilitation enterprises from 1995 to 1999, from 38 in 1995 to around 240 enterprises in 1999. In 1995 the enterprises employed 1 369 persons and in 1999 around 9 800 persons. This covers persons who are employed by the enterprises and those covered by employment and rehabilitation programmes. One of the reasons for the large increase is legislative changes designed to facilitate the creation of such enterprises and provide them with a more favourable distribution of wage and operating subsidies from the central and local government.

A common denominator of these enterprises is that they all receive subsidies from the central and or local government in the form of wage and investment subsidies. According to the accounts, public subsidies make up a steadily smaller portion of operating revenues, from 55.4 per cent in 1995 to 38.2 per cent in 1999.

Profitable businesses

Overall, local government-owned enterprises are doing well. However, a large portion of their operating revenues are from public subsidies, although trends show that the share of subsidies in relation to operating revenues is declining. This decline may be because many enterprises were in a start-up phase in 1995 and that turnovers are just now starting to increase.

While the result before tax is positive, there has been a declining trend for 1998 and 1999, from 4.2 per cent of operating revenues in 1997 to 2 per cent of operating revenues for 1998 and 1999. This despite the fact that revenues rose sharply from 1997 to 1998. The accounts also show that the enterprises saw positive changes in their working capital, with positive figures for all years from 1995 to 1999.

Work opportunities for occupationally handicapped persons

Rehabilitation programmes are designed to provide work opportunities for occupationally handicapped persons and offer training and counselling with a view to education, rehabilitation and occupational choices. As a rule, rehabilitation programmes involve the production of goods and service. We have therefore concentrated on the rehabilitation enterprises owned by local governments. Some examples of types of rehabilitation enterprises are public work cooperatives (ASVO), work preparation training (AFT) and work with assistance (AB).