The Police made illegal amendments to agreements on towing services
It was an offence against the procurement rules when the Swedish Police Authority concluded two agreements on amendments to existing framework agreements for towing services in Region Väst. Notice of the amendment agreements should have been published in accordance with the Public Procurement Act. This is the view of the Swedish Competition Authority, which is petitioning that the Swedish Police Authority be required to pay a procurement fine of SEK 1.2 million for illegal direct award.
During 2020, The Swedish Police Authority began a procurement of towing services in Region Väst and concluded agreements. During the spring of 2021, the Swedish Police Authority initiated renegotiation of the agreements and concluded amendment agreements with two suppliers.
The amendments in the agreements related to the terms for fixed and variable compensation for transports, among other things. The expected value of the framework agreements, totalling around SEK 15 million, was calculated for a term of four years.
According to the procurement rules, it is not possible to make amendments to agreements in the manner done in the amendment agreements. The amendments are so significant that the basic conditions for the agreements have changed. Therefore, the Swedish Police Authority should have performed a new public procurement with prior publication of a contract notice in accordance with the Swedish Public Procurement Act.
‘It is important to publish a procurement notice, so that more suppliers get the chance to submit tenders. If the amendments in question had been included in the original procurement, another tender might have won the contract or other bidders might have participated,’ says Rikard Jermsten, director-general of the Swedish Competition Authority.
The Swedish Competition Authority is now referring the matter to the Administrative Court in Stockholm with the demand that the Swedish Police Authority shall be required by law to pay SEK 1.2 million by way of a fine.
The fact that the Swedish Police Authority was imposed a procurement fine of SEK 2 million in September 2021 due to an illegal direct award of towing services in Region Väst is an aggravating circumstance. The repeated behaviour on the part of the Swedish Police Authority has affected the Swedish Competition Authority’s assessment of the size of the sanction in its current petition regarding a procurement fine.
For further information, please contact:
Marie Strömberg Lindvall, Press Officer, +46(0)76 542 15 92, marie.stromberglindvall@kkv.se
Maria Andersson Müller, Legal Counsel, +46(0)8 700 15 65, maria.anderssonmuller@kkv.se
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Last updated: 2022-05-13
Press release13 may 2022