The central bank Nationalbanken is being criticised for employing the neighbour of the bank’s governor, Lars Rohde, as a highly-paid consultant without advertising the position, giving rise to suggestions of cronyism, Jyllands-Posten reports.

Henriette Divert-Hendricks has been employed at the bank, which is a public institution, since August 17 last year, receiving 173,913 kroner per month. She is a former partner at the consulting firm Implement Consulting Group and, in that capacity, previously worked as an external consultant for the central bank.

Experts: should have been advertised
But, aside from the suitability of the candidate, Bent Greve, a professor at Roskilde University, who researches in management and organisation, was critical of the appointment procedure.

“It’s not pretty, regardless of the person’s skills and qualifications. A position like that should be advertised,” he said.

“You can’t do anything about the fact that you live next to one another, but in that case you should be extra careful, because you should be able to convince people that it’s not a case of cronyism.”

Finn Østrup, a professor at Copenhagen Business School, agrees that the position should have been open to other applicants.

“It is unwise that the position wasn’t advertised. There’s no problem in itself that she is Lars Rohde’s neighbour, but if the position had been advertised, as is done at other public institutions, then no-one could have reproached them afterwards,” he said.

Julie Holm Simonsen, the communications chief at the bank, responded to the criticism.

“As a starting point jobs at Nationalbanken are advertised, but it is always considered if there are suitable internal or external candidates,” she said.