Lidköping Municipality required to pay procurement fines

The Swedish Competition Authority turned to the Administrative Court in Jönköping with a petition for Lidköping Municipality to pay SEK 190,000 in procurement fines. The reason is that the municipality entered an agreement with a construction company for excavation services without prior announcement.

After having been forced to discontinue two procurements of excavation services, the municipality ended up short on time. It therefore entered a directly procured agreement with the construction company. At the same time, work was under way to prepare a new procurement.

When the municipality noticed that the compensation paid to the construction company exceeded the direct procurement limit, they chose to inform the Swedish Competition Authority of the violation.

The agreement has a value of around SEK 5.7 million. The highest possible fine amount in this case could have been up to around SEK 568,000. Because Lidköping Municipality contacted the Swedish Competition Authority on its own initiative, the motion was limited to SEK 190,000.

Read the application (in Swedish), dnr 511/2017