NORWAY - The NOK110bn (€14bn) national insurance fund is tendering for auditing services.

State-run auditing office Riksrevisjonen will no longer check the fund's finances from 2008 when Folketrygdfondet, the section in the finance ministry managing the fund, will become a separate legal entity.

The fund formerly known as National Insurance Scheme was renamed "Government Pension Fund - Norway" in 2006, alongside its sister fund the NOK1.8trn "Government Pension Fund - Global", formerly named Petroleum Fund.

Both funds are fuelled by Norway's oil revenues but the larger fund is currently exclusively invested abroad to help offset the impact of large and varying foreign exchange inflows from the petroleum sector on the Norwegian krone exchange rate.

In a white paper published earlier this year, the government said it is thinking about excluding Nordic companies from the portfolio of the national insurance fund as well.

In the first half of 2007, the fund outperformed its benchmark by 1.4 percentage points with a 10% return.

Last year, the fund reported 11.7% return. Annualised average return since 1997 is 7.1%.

Deadline for participation in the tender is October 15 and tender documents have to be drawn up in Norwegian.