Incorrect to split up contracts in order to avoid procurement

Splitting up the purchase of consultancy services into several smaller pieces in order to circumvent the procurement regulations is not permitted. The contracts for consultancy services that were illegally direct awarded by Fagersta Municipality and Norra Västmanlands Municipal Association should have been preceded by publication of a contract notice and been exposed to competitive tendering. This was decreed by the Competition Authority in a supervisory decision.

The two municipal organisation alternately signed contracts with the same consultancy firm without any procurement process that involved the publication of a contract notice. The consultancy commission was awarded to a former senior civil servant from Norra Västmanlands Municipal Association.

“Splitting up purchases in order to circumvent the regulation is obviously not permitted. The consultancy services should have been advertised so that all potential suppliers were given the chance to submit tenders“, says the Competition Authority’s Director-General Dan Sjöblom.

Read the application, dnr 431/2015 (in Swedish)

Read the application, dnr 432/2015 (in Swedish)