The National Audit Office's report on the annual recalculation of the agencies' appropriations
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
Vänsterpartiet wants to abolish the productivity deduction and review the price and wage recalculation model 1. The party believes that the model has major flaws, particularly regarding the wage recalculation, which creates an unmanageable savings condition that risks undermining quality and professionalism 1. Vänsterpartiet argues that the state cannot be managed like a company and that the productivity deduction leads to reduced appropriations for educational institutions 1. M argues that today's model has functioned well as a steering signal for efficiency and has not prevented the authorities from carrying out their missions 2. M safeguards the taxpayers' money and efficient authorities 2.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Ilona Szatmári Waldau (V)
Madam Speaker! This report concerns the Riksrevisionen's report on the annual recalculation of the agencies' appropriations, but the Finance Committee has chosen to take up motions from the general motion period in connection with the processing of the matter.
Vänsterpartiet has no other opinion than the committee's regarding the treatment of the National Audit Office's report, but we stand behind the committee's proposal that the Riksdag should submit the government's communication to the records. On the other hand, we argue that the Riksdag should approve Vänsterpartiet's motion to abolish the productivity deduction and review the price and wage recalculation model.
In connection with the 1990s crisis, a new model was introduced to calculate annual cost increases in the state budget. The price and wage recalculation model, as it is called, means that the state's costs for prices and wages are calculated automatically and follow the developments in other sectors. The model contains a so-called productivity deduction, an annual general saving in the state administration. The deduction aims to increase the rate of change in the state and thus the productivity. The idea is that the state shall follow the business sector's productivity increase, make the same efficiencies, and be managed with the same priorities as profit-driven, private companies.
The productivity deduction is thus another part of the neoliberal economic policy that gained significant traction during the 90s, where public activities increasingly came to be governed by the principles of the business sector, with a lack of public service as a consequence. As the insight that the state is not a company and that public activity is governed by a different logic than the business sector has emerged, the 90s policy has come to be questioned more and more.
Vänsterpartiet considers that today's model for price and wage adjustments has major flaws, especially regarding the wage adjustment. Different operations have very different conditions for managing an annual efficiency gain, and a constant and difficult-to-manage saving requirement arises. This creates pressure on working conditions and risks undermining quality and professionalism in the state operations.
The trade union ST, which organizes white-collar workers within state activities, has analyzed the effects of the productivity deduction since it was introduced in 1994. According to their calculations, it has led to an erosion of wage cost allocations of approximately 62 billion kronor per year within the state sector. According to ST's assessments, it has not affected wage levels but has instead likely contributed to the number of employees in the sector lagging behind compared to the private sector.
According to ST, the proportion of employees in government administration would have been much higher if the productivity development had occurred at the same pace as in the private sector - corresponding to 54 billion kronor, or 76,000 jobs. According to ST's forecast, the difference in the proportion of employees between the private sector and government administration will grow to 37 percent in 2026. This corresponds to 100,000 fewer employees within the government sector compared to the development in the private sector.
Within higher education, Sulf, a Swedish university teacher and researcher, notes that the productivity deduction is higher than the price and wage compensation, and since the budget appropriations to the institutions are unchanged this year compared to 2022, 2023 means reduced appropriations for our institutions. This means cuts on the price tag for education, which affects students and teachers. The same can be seen within other sectors.
The state cannot be run like a company. Stockholm University, Uppsala University, and the other educational institutions cannot move their production to locations with lower rents and wages, but can only provide their students with fewer and fewer lecture and supervision hours so that the budget will balance.
It is time to stop saving on state administration and to abolish the productivity deduction!
Jan Ericson (M)
Madam Speaker! This debate concerns the government's view on the National Audit Office's review of the recalculation of the agencies' appropriations. It is a question that may sound theoretical but which concerns how we allocate resources so that the agencies' operations can function, even when the costs for premises, wages, IT, and other things increase.
The Swedish National Audit Office's report on the annual recalculation of the mining authorities' appropriations
In today's model, the appropriations are adjusted in line with rising prices and wage costs, and from this, a deduction is made for expected productivity development in line with the private service sector. That is to say, we expect the authorities to have approximately the same development as the corresponding private sector. The model naturally does not prevent the government from making priorities when it comes to strengthening, phasing out, or reorganizing authorities and giving them new mandates or removing old ones.
The National Audit Office considers that today's model has functioned well as a steering signal for efficiency and that it has not prevented the authorities from carrying out their missions. That assessment is shared by the government with the agreement of six of the Riksdag's eight parties. The Left Party and the Green Party, however, want to completely or partially abolish the requirement for increased productivity in our authorities. For me and us Moderates, it is a very strange starting point. We safeguard the taxpayers' money and efficient authorities. That is the only thing I intend to say in this matter. This is the shortest contribution I have had in a long time.
I vote in favor of the committee's proposal and against the motions.
The deliberation was hereby concluded.
(Decisions were made under § 14.)
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Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.