The Västra Götaland Region has performed several illegal purchases of laboratory analysis services

The department for clinical genetics and genomics at the Sahlgrenska University Hospital, within the Västra Götaland Region, receives samples for analysis of genetic diseases. During the period 2019 to 2021, the region enlisted over 30 different suppliers for laboratory analysis services.

The Swedish Competition Authority has reviewed the purchases that the Västra Götaland Region made from Lund University in 2021. The total value of the purchases is almost SEK 8 million. All contracts were concluded without prior contract notices. Thus, they constitute an illegal direct award of contract, according to the Swedish Competition Authority. No written contracts were concluded with the supplier. Further, the purchases were not documented in accordance with the requirements of applicable regulations.

‘A contracting authority must organise its activities in such a way that it complies with the Public Procurement Act. If it also fails to document its purchases properly, it will be difficult to review and follow up on delivered services’, says Rikard Jermsten, Director-General of the Swedish Competition Authority.

The Swedish Competition Authority is now petitioning the Administrative Court in Göteborg that the Västra Götaland Region be issued a procurement fine of SEK 620,000 for having performed an illegal direct award of contract. The fact that the Region has been performing illegal direct awards since 2019 in order to meet its needs for the services in question has, to a certain extent, been seen as an exacerbating circumstance in the assessment of the appropriate size of the fine.

Marie Strömberg Lindvall, Press Officer, +46(0)76 542 15 92, marie.stromberglindvall@kkv.se
Frida Niklasson, Legal Counsel, +46(0)8 700 15 78, frida.niklasson@kkv.se