(cont.) Response to interpellation 2023/24:267 on welfare crime within healthcare
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
KD argues that the government is working to strengthen Ivo's role through budget reinforcements and investigations into expanded duty of disclosure for information exchange between authorities 1. KD emphasizes the importance of trust-based management and finding a balance where criminals are detected without introducing micro-management that harms other operations 1. KD opposes a "stop law" as the regions already have tools to stop criminals but need better opportunities to exchange information 2. KD underlines that tax money must not go to crime but to healthcare 1. V considers the situation acute and that the government should introduce a stop law against private companies to prevent the mafia from penetrating the welfare system 3. V argues that freedom of establishment has benefited the market in a negative way 3.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Statsrådet Acko Ankarberg Johansson (KD)
Madam Speaker! Once again, I thank the member for raising the question. The Government has worked in many different ways to strengthen Ivo's role. There are budget reinforcements in the autumn budget, which will be handled by the committee tomorrow here in the chamber. But we will, of course, return to this.
I believe it was already in 2019 that Ivo submitted 40 proposed measures to the government at that time regarding matters where they felt they needed to be given a chance to adjust their tools in order to better fulfill their mandate. One and a half of these proposed measures were implemented, but we have now addressed many of the other proposals on the list. I assess that it is necessary that we get many of these measures in place.
One of the things being investigated right now is expanded duty to provide information, which allows for the sharing of information not only between law enforcement agencies but also between other authorities, such as municipalities and regions. I believe that question is essential in order to be able to obtain the information that is needed. We are not moving away from the fact that municipalities and regions – in this case, it concerns regions – already have a statutory obligation today to find out everything they need about the person who applies to operate, for example, a health center. But they also need to have the possibility to exchange information. If they do not have that possibility, it is not so simple for them to detect those who enter with criminal intentions or have such in the background. I assess that it is necessary that we make progress on those issues, and investigations are currently underway in those matters.
Which measures should be taken is a neighborly issue. We all try to avoid micro-management and controls that are not expedient, in order to instead have a trust-based management where one knows what mission one has, so that we do not get too much of what the member himself describes as new public management, something that is filled with controls and supervision at a detailed level. The risk with the threat from criminals is that we end up in the other ditch. Therefore, it is important for me to find a good balance and take measures that allow us to find the criminals, who have no interest in welfare, but do not result in too many controls at a detailed level that ruin things for everyone else who operates within health and medical care; this applies to both public management and those who are private or non-profit. Finding this balance will be a neighborly task as we now look at measures.
But that measures are needed is obvious. Not a single welfare krona shall go to criminals. The great threat is, just as the member himself points out, that the regions are currently having a very tough time due to inflation. The consequences of inflation will remain for them throughout all of next year as a result of the pension agreement, and then they need every single krona they have. No money shall be paid out to the criminals. It is necessary from the healthcare perspective that all the money that exists there goes to exactly healthcare for people who have need of it.
The regions are about to take measures, and SKR is now gathering together and intends to return to the Riksdag with a list. The work that we do in the government will contribute to things happening. But it is gratifying that the guard has already been raised in several regions to control this, because there are many kronor disappearing to criminals. Tax money should not go to financing crime. They should go to healthcare, school, and care. We will do our best to ensure that it also becomes so.
Karin Rågsjö (V)
Madam Speaker! This feels like a rather acute issue. I believe that these gangs, which I call the mafia, have geared up when it comes to penetrating the welfare system. The Economic Crime Authority, for example, has been very clear that it is no longer drugs that constitute the economically large part of their activities, but welfare crimes. Just as we have discussed previously, they have entered health centers, vaccinations, HVB homes, and so on.
This is also very dangerous for democracy. It is not just that our tax money disappears, but it eventually becomes system-threatening. It is very dangerous. We should not have anything resembling the Italian mafia in Sweden. It also leads to increased corruption. That has been observed, for example, in Södertälje.
We believe that the government should now nevertheless look into a stop law against private companies. It is very urgent. It is a matter of ensuring that criminal gangs do not enter the operations and of strengthening Ivo's resources to quality-assure existing health and social care. It must have more resources to be able to direct its operations towards those issues.
As a patient at, for example, a dentist or a health center, one must feel the security that it is an okay operation. One must look at the rot that unfortunately exists here now in order to remove it.
Vänsterpartiet and I believe that after the freedom of establishment has been introduced, it has become gold for the market itself when it comes to welfare to have that possibility to open healthcare companies in the way that is now with freedom of establishment. It has not been anything good.
Statsrådet Acko Ankarberg Johansson (KD)
Madam Speaker! There will be no stop law. Every region already has the possibility today to stop those who are criminal. They have all the tools today. But we believe that they need more tools to be able to detect them and to be able to exchange information so that they find them.
It is exactly as the member points out. The criminals are very skilled, and they are a threat to the system. We must become better than them at detecting. There are infiltrators in various places, and this has also been noted in the media.
It is a matter of looking at it in a different way. We are used to trust-based management. I want us to continue to have that. But we must find ways to detect those who threaten our welfare and do so in the best possible way.
There is no freedom of establishment in the sense that I can open a business and directly receive money from the public sector. I must be approved by the region and fulfill both what is stated in the law and the specific contractual conditions that the region sets.
Regions have tools to use today. But we must give them better tools. The Government will return regarding Ivo's possibilities with both tools and resources. But it is necessary that everyone looks up and sees that there are problems.
It is still drugs involved. We see that Tramadol, opioids and other substances are prescribed so that they can be easily picked up at a pharmacy. It is a very simple way for gangs to get a share of drugs to pick them up at a pharmacy.
There are many parts of the chain that we need to look at to see: Where do we find what is the problem, and how are we to remedy it? It is even the case with transports that occur to the pharmacies that there has been an infiltrator who can tell exactly when such a transport arrives. Then one stands there and takes the Tramadol or whatever it is.
We have many different fields that we are looking at to find the right measures. It affects both private and public activities that must raise their guard and ensure that one understands that not everyone is here to provide healthcare. Some are here solely to wash black money white and to finance crime. It is them that we must collectively stop.
Thank you very much, member, for your commitment! I will return to the committee next week on the same subject.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.