No action in Swedish Government's anti-corruption plan

According to Claes Sandgren, professor emeritus in civil law at Stockholm University, the Swedish government's action plan against corruption is not enough. In a debate article on DN Debatt (Swedish) he criticizes the plan for lacking substance, not being an actual plan and without any actionable commitment.

Sandgren further believes that the "action plan's" focus on the state level is unfortunate, as 80 percent of public procurement in Sweden pertains to municipalities.

Despite the fact that Sweden is often viewed as a country with low corruption (see previous blog post), the EU Barometer 2019 shows that three out of ten companies believe that in the last three years they have lost public procurement contracts due to corruption.

– The municipal procurement is carried out to a significant extent by the publicly owned companies, which are governed by politicians and civil servants who also have assignments in bodies that review the procurements, Sandgren says.

Public Affairs Magazine (Swedish) also reports on criticism from Transparency International, which calls on the Government to supplement its plan with action.