Public procurement
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerns regulation and requirements in public procurement. SD wants less extensive requirements to enable small businesses 1, that food must follow Swedish legislation 1, that meat must come from stunned animals 1 as well as that actors with links to dictatorships be excluded 1. S wants to limit subcontractors in risk industries 2, require conditions on par with collective agreements 2 and that the law should not apply to public housing companies 2. M wants to focus on quality, cost-effectiveness and competition neutrality 3, simplify the regulatory framework 3 and use AI to reduce bureaucracy 3. KD argues that the government is working to stop unserious actors 4. C wants to set higher environmental requirements 5. V wants to change EU rules to be able to require collective agreements 6 and tighten the law to guarantee human rights 6.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
David Perez (SD)
Madam Speaker! I intended to begin by moving for approval of the committee's proposal for a decision.
We will now debate the subject of public procurement. Those of us who have once worked at the municipal, regional, state, or other agency level know that public procurement constitutes a cornerstone for operations and their functioning. As I have said in previous debates, the procurement process can of course be improved, but there is still a regulatory framework that is transparent and contributes to pushing back corruption and incorrect arrangements.
With that said, I want to highlight Denmark, which is actually a positive example when it comes to public procurement, because they enable more small companies to participate in procurements. It is an example that we should follow. The background to this is primarily that they have less extensive requirements regarding how they structure their procurements. That does not mean that they are worse. It is important that more small companies are involved and competing for tenders.
Competence in the subject is also limited, and one can question whether it is reasonable for all 290 municipalities to jointly procure the same IT service to, for example, run a municipal website. Is this the best that can be done for the municipality's money and the state funds received? It obviously drives up the price and is an unreasonable and unnecessary cost when it comes to efficiency, which we usually debate in this chamber.
The most tedious aspect of public procurement is, as we have heard from the rostrum, the criminal elements that have recently targeted the public sector. It is unserious and suspicious companies that win procurements and then do not deliver the correct product. Several agencies have worked to prevent welfare crime, including Socialstyrelsen, Ivo and E-hälsomyndigheten, to name just a few.
It is also problematic when certain sensitive operations can end up with undesirable actors. Is it, for example, reasonable that protected objects should be able to be protected by companies that have close links to dictatorships? Yes, one can wonder about that.
This issue was highlighted during the extensive debate on security around Arlanda Airport, but it is only one case among many. Other sensitive and important infrastructure is also being procured throughout Sweden.
Sensitive material or information regarding national security must under no circumstances be compromised, and the Sweden Democrats believe that, on this basis, certain actors should be able to be excluded from participating in procurements. In that regard, the government has actually acted and landed on exactly this: The proposal regarding third-country suppliers' access to procurement procedures is out for consultation until April 14.
We welcome that the government is actively working on the procurement issue linked to our civil preparedness and defense capability. That we need to be self-sufficient in certain medicines or have preparedness to start production of these is a lesson we learned during the pandemic, and the mandate to Socialstyrelsen and Läkemedelsverket to strengthen the availability of particularly critical healthcare products is an important step for our preparedness.
Regarding the motions found in the report, I can understand the intention behind them, but some appear impossible to implement. The Social Democrats often speak of their proposal regarding a limitation on the number of subcontractors, but as shown in the report, this is not compatible with the procurement directives and the provisions of the EUF Treaty. It would be interesting to hear, perhaps from subsequent speakers, how the Social Democrats have thought about this issue and whether they have taken this fact into account.
Madam Speaker! The committee stands unanimously behind the view that public procurement should contribute to as much social benefit as possible and promote common interests in order to achieve important goals in the long term, such as good conditions in the labor market, environmental goals, good animal welfare or reduced antibiotic use, to mention just a few areas that can benefit.
The food purchased through public procurement should, in our opinion, be produced in accordance with Swedish environmental and animal welfare legislation, when possible. There should be no doubt that the food served in our schools, in our hospitals, or in our elderly care homes meets the same tough requirements as that which is produced here in Sweden. Today, it is up to each municipality to set this type of requirement, but we believe that this should be guiding. There are other parties in here who support this, and therefore I believe that we should act promptly to get this in place.
That the meat procured must come from animals that have been stunned before slaughter is also a self-evident matter for us. The National Agency for Public Procurement has already enabled support for this, in the hope of facilitating the process for authorities, but we believe that it should be mandatory by law.
Madam Speaker! In conclusion: It is important to promote small business ownership throughout Sweden. If we can get more entrepreneurs to enter into procurements and submit tenders, competition will lead to a more cost-effective product, more jobs and opportunities for entrepreneurship – and hopefully less waste when it is done right.
Peder Björk (S)
Madam Speaker! Public procurement is fundamentally about something very simple, namely how we use our common tax money. Every year, the state, the municipalities, and the regions procure goods and services for over 900 billion kronor. These are funds that are to go towards welfare, towards jobs, and towards building Sweden stronger.
Today, however, we see something somewhat different. We see how unserious actors and purely criminal companies are entering the systems, and we see how tax money risks feeding labor-related crime and welfare crime. We also see a public sector that is not keeping up. We actually cannot continue to have it this way.
Madam Speaker! We Social Democrats believe that public procurement should be a tool to build a stronger society, not a backdoor for fraud and crime. But that requires the politics to take responsibility, and here the SD government fails. The pace is slow, the measures are too cautious, and the scope of the problem is underestimated. When it is proposed that a central tool for control – a system for coordinated register control – should not be in place until 2028, it is not decisiveness we see, but rather that they are actually turning a blind eye to the problems here and now.
We want to start where the problems are greatest, namely in the subcontracting chain. Today, a public procurement can involve long chains of suppliers and subcontractors. We see this most clearly within the construction sector. The longer the chain becomes, the more difficult the control becomes, and at the bottom of the chain, we often find the absolute worst conditions. There we find people working without security, with low wages and sometimes completely outside the regulatory frameworks. That is where the labor crime takes hold. At the same time, the main supplier can say: That is not our responsibility.
Therefore, we Social Democrats say clearly: Ensure that the number of sub-contracting levels is limited to two, and start with the high-risk industries! It is not radical, Madam Speaker, but it is reasonable.
Madam Speaker! The next step is actually about consequences. Today, companies that cheat, break rules, or do not pay tax can still continue to participate in procurements. That is completely unreasonable, and it sends a clear signal that rule-breaking does not have any real consequences. Companies that cheat should, of course, be able to be blacklisted; it is a self-evident matter in a serious system. It is also a matter of justice towards all those companies and entrepreneurs who do the right thing every day.
We must also face a new reality. Crime has become more advanced – more systematic and more data-driven – which means that the public sector cannot work with yesterday's tools. Therefore, we want to see an expanded use of AI and new technology in the work against just welfare crime. AI is, in fact, good at analyzing patterns in enormous amounts of data and identifying anomalies – and detecting fraud that otherwise would never have been made visible. The technology and knowledge exist; what is missing today are the conditions to do this on a larger scale.
Madam Speaker! Public procurement is, of course, not just about stopping what is wrong but also about doing more of what is right. There is enormous potential here. Through procurement, we can drive innovation, strengthen Swedish competitiveness, and contribute to the climate transition. But then we must also begin to see procurement as a strategic tool and not just as an administrative process.
Today we see that there are deficiencies in governance, follow-up, and the setting of goals. We see that the agreements that have been entered into are not fully followed up. We see that direct procurement is increasing and that competition is decreasing, and we see that the control is failing. There, we as a society must be able to do better.
At the same time, we want to ensure that working conditions are protected in procurement. For us Social Democrats, it is self-evident that tax money should never contribute to wage dumping. Therefore, conditions on par with collective agreements must equally self-evidently apply in public procurement. It is about order and tidiness, it is about justice, and it is about standing up for the Swedish model.
Madam Speaker! We are also actually living in a completely new security policy situation, and that means that the procurement systems must be adapted. Suppliers who can constitute a security risk should not be able to participate in public procurements. Sharper rules are needed here, and above all, faster decisions are needed. Investigating in this area is important, but acting is actually absolutely crucial.
Let me also say something about housing construction in this context. Sweden is in a situation where housing construction has slowed down significantly. At the same time, public housing companies have higher costs than private actors, partly due to the Public Procurement Act. This means longer construction times, more expensive projects and, ultimately, fewer homes.
This is a systemic error. If we want to produce more rental apartments that ordinary people can afford, we must dare to change the regulatory framework. Therefore, the Social Democrats want the Public Procurement Act not to be applied to public service housing companies.
Madam Speaker! Today's debate on procurement is fundamentally about what kind of society we want. Do we want a society where tax funds are used responsibly, where serious companies compete on equal terms and where employees have secure and decent conditions, or do we want a society where cheating, crime and short-sightedness are allowed to spread in the public system?
For us Social Democrats, the answer is simple. We want to regain control. We want to stop the cheating. We want to strengthen the control and justice in the system. We want to use public procurement as a tool to build Sweden stronger. For that, a new direction for Sweden is needed.
I naturally stand behind all the proposals we have put forward in our reservations, but in order to gain some time during the voting, I move for approval only of reservation 8, which concerns the limitation of the number of subcontractors.
Adam Reuterskiöld (M)
Madam Speaker! Public procurement is one of the most central mechanisms for ensuring that tax money is used effectively. Every year, the public sector procures goods and services for over 1,000 billion kronor, which corresponds to approximately 18 percent of Sweden's GDP. It is therefore crucial that procurement is characterized by competition, efficiency, and transparency and does not become a tool for political steering.
As a Moderate, I view with concern how certain parties increasingly want to micro-manage procurement with political requirements. This can involve extensive environmental requirements, requirements for collective agreements, or requirements on the origin of products. Even though these issues are important, such requirements risk excluding small companies, reducing competition, and increasing the cost of public operations.
Madam Speaker! Companies are the engine of Sweden's economy. Four out of five new jobs are created in small and medium-sized enterprises, and these companies are often those that submit bids in public procurements. When procurements become bureaucratic or detail-oriented, their participation is hindered, and the large corporations are favored instead. For us Moderates, it is clear that all companies should be able to compete on equal terms.
The Government has during the mandate period taken several concrete measures to improve the business climate and the procurement system.
We have simplified the administration. Small companies get more time to focus on their operations by raising the turnover limit for VAT from 80,000 to 120,000 kronor.
We have improved the business portal verksamt.se. All agency information is gathered in one place to make it easier for companies to participate in procurements.
The procurement statistics have improved. From January 2024, all participating companies in a procurement must be stated, not just the company that wins. This provides better market information and promotes competition.
The Government has also given a mandate to the National Agency for Public Procurement. The agency shall identify barriers for small companies and idea-based actors and propose concrete measures to increase participation and competition.
Madam Speaker! We must remember that public procurement is largely governed by the EU. LOU implements EU directives that ensure free movement, competition neutrality, and transparency. Swedish authorities therefore have limited scope to micro-manage procurements with requirements on labor rights, environment, or product origin without violating EU legislation.
The biggest problem, however, is often how procurement is carried out in practice. The report clearly shows that it is not the laws that are failing. Instead, it is about the way procurement is conducted, the lack of follow-up, and insufficient quality control. Many agencies never check whether suppliers comply with working conditions or environmental requirements, which makes the requirements ineffective. Innovation procurement and technical solutions fail due to rigid requirement specifications. Deficient competence among procurers also leads to inefficiency and higher costs.
Madam Speaker! We have spoken about welfare crime before. It is a serious threat both to the taxpayers' money and to the trust in our common systems. It must be met with clarity, stringent requirements, and accountability.
The government has therefore taken a number of measures regarding procurement. The National Agency for Public Procurement and the Swedish Economic Crime Authority have been tasked with supporting municipalities in detecting and stopping unscrupulous actors in procurements. At the same time, agencies such as the Swedish Tax Agency, the Swedish Police Authority, and the Swedish Social Insurance Agency have been tasked with cooperating and sharing information to strike against organized crime in the welfare sector. This means that we can now to a greater extent identify unscrupulous actors, stop incorrect payments, and ensure that only serious actors receive public contracts.
For us Moderates, it is simple: Tax money should go to welfare, not to crime. Public procurement should be for the serious companies and not open to fraud. Therefore, it is important that the authorities continue to develop controls and routines to prevent this type of crime.
The Moderates want to see a public procurement that focuses on quality, cost-effectiveness, and competition neutrality. It should stimulate innovation, give more companies the opportunity to participate, and ensure that tax money is used effectively. It should not be used to drive political agendas.
Moving forward, the government plans to continue simplifying the regulatory framework and ensure that small companies and idea-driven actors can participate in procurement processes. The follow-up and quality control in connection with various contracts shall also be strengthened.
Digital tools shall be developed. With AI support, one can reduce bureaucracy and increase efficiency. One can also promote innovation and sustainability without compromising on competition or cost-effectiveness.
Madam Speaker! Given how many of the motions treated in the report seek to add further requirements to procurements, it is important to remind of the reality. It is most often the execution, the follow-up, and the quality review that are lacking, not the regulatory framework itself. Building on more political requirements does not solve the problem but can, on the contrary, worsen it.
That is why we Moderates stand firm on our line: Public procurement shall be transparent, competition-neutral and efficient. It shall provide opportunities for companies and ensure that tax money is used in the best way.
Hans Eklind (KD)
Madam Speaker! The value of the procurement-obligated purchases during 2025 was over 1 trillion kronor, i.e., over 1,000 billion kronor. This corresponds to approximately 15 percent of Sweden's GDP. That the value has increased even during the last year is no news, but rather it is a long-term trend. When these figures are mentioned, it becomes obvious to everyone why it is so important that public procurement is used correctly. A correct public procurement can, in fact, contribute to us obtaining a functioning social service for the benefit of both citizens and companies and to us using tax funds in the best possible and most effective way.
Before this debate, I have spent considerable time reading the National Agency for Public Procurement's report on the development in the procurement area during 2025. There are a number of interesting observations here, for example that the number of advertised procurements increased slightly during 2024, that the average number of bids decreased, and that the number of judicial reviews is becoming fewer year by year. Extra interesting in the report was that it highlighted the crime directed at just public affairs. It is no surprise to any of us that unserious actors appear in areas where large sums of money are circulated.
Thankfully, the Chamber is completely in agreement that not a single tax krona shall end up in the pockets of unserious actors. Taxpayers' money should be used much better than that. Therefore, it is important to find solutions so that unserious actors cannot participate in public procurements, and the government has really not sat idly by when it comes to actively ensuring that unserious and sometimes gang-criminal actors are stopped. The authorities are given better tools and support so that unserious bids can be stopped. But they are investigating registers and rating systems for suppliers, and they are strengthening follow-up and quality control.
Madam Speaker! The National Agency for Public Procurement also highlights something that is unfortunately increasing, namely undue influence. It has become a real and increasing problem, often linked to corruption. This is now, alongside work-life crime and welfare crime, a central risk factor.
I react strongly to this because undue influence undermines the efforts of the Riksdag, the municipalities, and the regions to maintain legally secure, efficient, and sustainable public procurement.
The government is now taking the initiative to strengthen the National Agency for Public Procurement. In October last year, the government presented a national reform for healthier public procurement, and it is the most extensive transformation of the governance of public procurement in many years. The National Agency for Public Procurement is strengthened by centralizing procurement issues there, and the agency is provided with both resources and competence. They are also investing in increasing transparency through digitalization, which Adam Reuterskiöld highlighted in a productive way. The National Agency for Public Procurement also supports the municipalities in their fight against welfare crime and labor-related crime.
Madam Speaker! An area that has rightly been in focus in recent years due to the current security policy situation is Sweden's food security, also from a procurement perspective. The Government has here tasked the Swedish Board of Agriculture to begin the procurement of emergency stocks of grain. Emergency storage shall be carried out through turnover storage, meaning that the state signs agreements with companies that already today handle grain.
Furthermore, we have the Food Strategy 2.0, which was presented a year ago. It is an update of the old national food strategy from 2017, and it aims to strengthen the entire food chain from farm to fork. The goal is to increase Swedish food production, strengthen the competitiveness of companies and ultimately increase and improve Sweden's ability to handle crises and supply disruptions.
Madam Speaker! Everything that needs to be done is not done, on the contrary. The government is doing a lot, but we must continue to work.
Jens Nylander, perhaps best known as Jens of Sweden, released a report nearly two years ago in which he pointed out that Sweden's municipalities and regions waste up to 90 billion through making unnecessary purchases, paying overprices, and having inefficient procurement processes. Jens Nylander came to this conclusion after having AI go through 30 million invoices from regions and municipalities. One should, of course, take his conclusion with a grain of salt, but if he is right, it means that municipalities and regions have spent as much money unnecessarily as the entire justice system received in 2025. I still take with me what I read in Jens Nylander's report, because we must never shy away from using the tools required to make public procurement both better and more efficient.
Anders Karlsson (C)
Madam Speaker! We are now debating the Committee on Finance's report FiU34 Public Procurement.
How public procurement is carried out is of the utmost importance for both buyers and sellers given that it is tax money being handled. The regulatory frameworks used are the Public Procurement Act, LOU, and the Act on Freedom of Choice, LOV. LOV is used when one wants several who can deliver based on the same criteria. Here, one can also set up several different parameters to obtain what is desired. In the first instance, however, one thinks of LOU because it dominates. It is often perceived that it is the lowest price that applies, but even with LOU, one has great opportunities to include quality criteria, minimum wage, and other requirements in the procurement.
Another way to manage a procurement is to divide it up. Municipalities and regions often dominate within their areas, and by dividing a procurement, more can participate and submit bids, which is important for maintaining good competition in a given area but also for achieving good climate benefits.
It is important that municipalities and regions are transparent when they procure through public procurement. As several have pointed out during the debate, it concerns a lot of tax money. The new matter that is now to be procured concerns crisis and preparedness, and even here, public procurement within healthcare, elderly care, and social services is important.
Madam Speaker! I vote in favor of reservation 6 under point 4 regarding environmental requirements.
Setting environmental requirements is part of public procurement, and I will take some examples. It is something the sitting government can be criticized for, namely that it does not meet the environmental requirements. During a construction, one can, for example, set requirements for climate-smart concrete. Requiring biofuel, biogas, for the municipality's work vehicles and buses is another example.
One must go a step further in the requirements for public procurement and take a holistic approach. One cannot simply set a requirement for biogas; one must think about the entire chain. Given that we are talking about such large amounts in total and that it is about favoring a whole to achieve the climate goals, I believe the public sector must be involved.
If one had set requirements for work vehicles with biogas seven years ago, there would not have been enough biogas in, for example, the Stockholm area. If one had had more of a systems thinking to produce biogas, the biogas would probably have become a climate benefit ten years earlier. Today, biogas does function on the market.
Biojet fuel for aviation is another thing that has recently been discussed. It is an environmentally better fuel, and this is something that should be set as a requirement when it comes to state aviation. Electricity, where appropriate, instead of fossil fuels is also obvious.
Making a joint procurement is also a way to shorten transport distances and to use local food more efficiently. There, the municipalities may have an opportunity to influence. On the other hand, there are quite large limitations on how a procurement should be formulated to fulfill the regulatory framework. For example, one cannot use the term "Swedish food". It does not work in procurement if it is to be done correctly.
Another example that we have highlighted is two-stroke engines. One way to phase them out and not burden the environment is to not use two-stroke engines. We know that it is harmful. Delivery of food in our urban areas is increasingly occurring as quick delivery by moped. It may not be entirely appropriate that so much of this involves two-stroke engines inside a densely populated society. Here, one could absolutely set requirements in another way in a procurement, but it is more about environmental requirements.
An area where we could absolutely set requirements concerns the reserve capacity we have with Svenska kraftnät. There, we use fossil oil many times despite the fact that there are alternatives, and we could really set requirements for fossil-free alternatives in that part.
These examples show how procurement can be used as a tool when emissions must be reduced so that we can reach the national climate goals.
Hanna Gunnarsson (V)
Madam Speaker and honorable members! Hello to all of you who are listening and watching from home!
I am substituting here in the debate on public procurement today and will therefore be very brief. I would like to start by moving for approval of reservation 2.
The regulatory framework for public procurement does not work so well today, we in Vänsterpartiet believe. We have submitted several proposals that are being addressed in various reports.
Unfortunately, changes at the EU level are required to achieve a better regulatory framework for public procurement in Sweden. We cannot make the decisions entirely on our own in the Swedish Riksdag, but we could act via the EU.
According to the EU's procurement directives, requirements for collective agreements in connection with procurement cannot be set, but only requirements for conditions in accordance with collective agreements when it concerns such as wages, working hours and holidays. The directive also prevents the possibility of introducing a limitation on the number of subcontractor levels. It risks leading to wage dumping and contributing to insecure jobs with poor conditions on the Swedish labor market.
Vänsterpartiet wants to change the EU's procurement rules so that it becomes possible to improve the procurement legislation in Sweden and thereby set requirements for collective agreements in all public procurement, without exception.
Today there are major problems with how public procurement is applied. All too often, the lowest price is guiding, which leads to unserious companies winning procurements by keeping prices down at the expense of a good working environment and reasonable working conditions. The requirements that are set are all too rarely met.
In recent years, even criminal gangs have established themselves in the welfare sector after winning tenders, which is completely unreasonable. The development is a threat to the system and must be stopped. If the contracting authorities had instead sought views from relevant trade unions before each tender, many unserious companies could have been filtered out in the procurement process. In this way, crime in the labor market within public procurement could be countered.
Vänsterpartiet wants the Public Procurement Act to be tightened in order to guarantee procurement in line with internationally recognized human rights and ILO's fundamental principles and rights at work.
Too many Swedish importers prioritize low production costs over environmental considerations and conditions for employees, which leads to very difficult conditions, even forced labor, for workers in the countries where many goods are produced. This is especially serious in China, a country where many products sold in Sweden are produced.
I vote in favor of reservation 2.
The deliberation was hereby concluded.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.