Sigtuna is criticised for incorrect consultancy agreements

The Competition Authority has examined sixteen agreements regarding consulting services that the municipality has concluded with a particular provider over the course of three years. The value of the agreements examined amounts to over SEK 11 million. Each of the agreements has exceeded the direct procurement limit.

The agreements have related to consultancy services and the consultants have served as senior officials within the municipality, such as Planning manager. Recruiting personnel for such services is a communal core task. It is therefore reasonable to assume that a municipality must be able to anticipate the need for such services, suggests the Competition Authority in the decision.   Customary exposure to competition through advertising would have been possible. It is therefore not consistent with the procurement rules to make regular purchases of services from the same provider in the way that Sigtuna has done.

“If goods or services are procured by a municipality, without competitors getting an opportunity to submit bids, there is an increased risk that it is not the most advantageous contract that is being signed. Agreements of this size are to be advertised in accordance with the procurement legislation,” says Ewa Wennberg, Director of the Procurement Enforcement Department at the Swedish Competition Authority, in a statement.

Read the decision, dnr 249/2015 (in Swedish)