Review of municipal contracts yielded results

The Swedish Competition Authority has conducted an in-depth review of the purchasing activities of three municipalities. The reviews have revealed shortcomings in the municipalities’ purchasing activities. The purpose of the review was to produce information that would act as a foundation for the improvement of existing procedures with the aim of reducing the risk of, for example, the illegal awarding of direct contracts.

During 2015 and 2016, the Swedish Competition Authority has carried out a thorough scrutiny of the procurement procedures of Timrå, Alvesta and Gnesta municipalities. One of the results of this review was that Timrå municipality has had to pay SEK 60,000 in procurement fines for the purchase of used computers. In several guiding decisions, the municipalities have been criticised for things such as the purchasing of a suspension bridge, consultants, water and sanitation services, as well as the purchase of photocopiers and toner.

“We can see that the in-depth review has already led the municipalities to implement a number of measures to ensure future compliance with procurement regulations, and additional work is also in progress. This is something that we are very pleased to see”, says the Director-General of the Swedish Competition Authority Dan Sjöblom.

The in-depth procurement review is a new method for checking whether the purchasing activities of awarding authorities comply with procurement regulations. The method involves the Swedish Competition Authority submitting requests for parts of the municipality’s accounts for a selected period. The accounts are then checked against the payments made to the municipality’s suppliers which are compared to the advertised contracts.

“This method of in-depth procurement scrutiny enables us to take a comprehensive view of the purchasing activities of the awarding authority. The method serves as a good complement to our other supervisory methods. We shall continue to develop tools for more planned and strategic monitoring within the field of public procurement”, says the Director-General of the Swedish Competition Authority Dan Sjöblom.