The office of county governor is a government agency of the Kingdom of Norway.
For the first 22 years, the Tromsø and Vardøhus counties shared an amtmann.
On 1 July 2006, the Northern Sami language name for the county was granted co-official (parallel) status along with Troms, so the names became Troms fylke (Norwegian) or Romssa fylka (Northern Sami).
The governor carries out the resolutions and guidelines of the Storting and government.
This is done first by the county governor performing administrative tasks on behalf of the ministries.