Response to interpellation 2023/24:347 on the regulatory framework for procurement
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
1 KD argues that the most effective measure against work-life crime is to never give criminal actors access to the market 1. 1 KD emphasizes that current procurement rules do not prevent authorities from requesting information about subcontractors or demanding specific subcontractors 1. 2 KD believes that there is a deficiency in post-control and that a more strategic procurement process is needed 2. 2 KD argues that with today's regulatory framework, it is not possible to limit the number of subcontractors 2. 3 S argues that current legislation is not good enough as irregularities persist 3. 3 S believes that long supply chains hinder follow-up and accountability 3. 3 S criticizes that the Supplier Control Inquiry did not present proposals to address low supplier chains 3. 3 S believes that subcontractor chains should be limited and wants an inquiry to investigate this 3. 4 S argues that the current regulatory framework contributes to unhealthy competition, welfare crime, and workplace accidents 4. 4 S suggests that it should be investigated how many links can be limited, as the current system with hundreds of links makes it difficult to take responsibility 4. 5 S stands behind the proposal that Bolagsverket should provide a register 5. 6 KD argues that it is not possible to limit the number of subcontractors due to current EU law 6. 6 KD argues that authorities can gain control by requesting information about subcontractors 6. 6 KD wants to review the national procurement strategy to increase competition, press costs, and create safer workplaces 6. 7 KD argues that it is unreasonable to accuse the government of a lack of interest in fatal accidents 7. 7 KD informs that the referral responses for a register are being compiled by the Ministry of Finance 7.
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 Erik Slottner (KD)
Mr. Speaker! Gunilla Carlsson has asked me if I intend to act to change the regulatory framework for procurement in order to reduce accidents and limit opportunities for cheating.
The most effective measure against companies engaged in labor market crime is to never give these actors access to the market. Effective competition is important for the market to function. At the same time, it becomes even more important that people in vulnerable positions are not exploited to press prices. Criminal actors who systematically act in violation of laws and regulations shall not be granted public contracts through procurement.
The procurement laws already contain rules on exclusion aimed at maintaining healthy competition. The possibility to exclude suppliers due to abnormally low prices also exists.
The supplier control investigation has submitted proposals that will make it easier to check and exclude unsuitable and unprofessional suppliers from public procurements. The investigation proposes that Bolagsverket be given responsibility for providing a service that makes it possible for procuring authorities to check suppliers who submit bids in individual procurements.
I want to point out that the procurement rules do not limit the possibility for contracting organizations to request that a supplier specify which subcontractors shall be used and what proportion of the contract shall be outsourced to a subcontractor. There is also no limitation on how many tiers the organization may request information about.
Whether it is about exclusion, subcontracting, or control, the procurement rules do not set up any obstacles. What needs to be improved in many cases is how contracting organizations use the opportunities and that an adequate follow-up of the public contracts takes place.
Gunilla Carlsson (S)
Mr. Speaker! I would like to begin by thanking Minister Slottner for the answer.
Last year was a black year regarding workplace accidents with fatal outcomes. 65 people went to their work but never came home again. Unfortunately, I could read on the Swedish Work Environment Authority's website yesterday that the number of people who have died in workplace accidents this year was already six – one month into the new year. This is a great tragedy for family, loved ones, friends and colleagues, but also for society as a whole. These persons were killed in connection with performing their work.
We can never accept this. Everyone must feel safe at their workplaces, and when they go to work, they must also know that they will come home in the evening. Unfortunately, the SD-led government has not acted on issues regarding the work environment. Many feel and experience insecurity at their workplaces. It can be about the work environment, but also about work-related crime and unfair conditions on the labor market.
As I point out in my interpellation to Minister Slottner, labor crime in our country is a growing problem that has consequences in several different ways. People are exploited and treated poorly. In some cases, they live under slave-like conditions. But it is also a threat to our common resources. Both labor crime and VAT fraud are a major threat to the state finances.
Every year, the state, municipalities, and regions procure for approximately 800 billion kronor. This is a significant part of the society's total economy. These are our common tax dollars, which I believe should be used in a responsible manner. Through procurement legislation, we have an opportunity to counter corruption, arbitrariness, and waste of tax funds, but we also have a responsibility to set requirements. Public procurement should never contribute to unhealthy competition or dump conditions on the Swedish labor market.
In the answer I received today from the Minister, it is highlighted that the best measure is to never give unserious actors access to the market, that effective competition is important and that criminal actors who systematically act in defiance of laws and regulations shall not be awarded public contracts through procurement. The Minister emphasizes that the procurement laws already contain rules regarding the exclusion of sub-supplier chains and control, and that there are no problems with this. This demonstrates a passive stance from one of the government's representatives. One can perceive the answer as that the responsible Minister actually has no responsibility or any opportunities to influence the situation. An equally great passivity has the SD-led government shown in the matter of workplace accidents.
It is not always so easy to find these unserious companies when one is sitting and procuring. If it were, we would not be met with all these recurring news stories about companies that are unserious or criminal and exploit labor within procured activities. I actually have great respect for the fact that it is not always so easy to procure. In some cases, one has large organizations, but sometimes one is also very alone.
My questions to the Minister of Justice remain. Does the Minister not see any concern that people are being exploited in their workplaces and that we have people who do not come home again? If the Minister sees this, how does he intend to act, not least as the person responsible for the procurement legislation?
The Minister mentions the proposal to task Bolagsverket with coordinating register checks. I wonder when the Minister can speak about when this will be in place.
Eva Lindh (S)
Mr. Speaker! Last year, 2023, truly became a black year regarding workplace accidents. It is not worthy that one should go to work and never come home. It is both sad and unacceptable. Just as Gunilla Carlsson said in her post, most accidents seem to occur in industries that are very heavily affected by occupational crime and where the work environment work is lacking.
This naturally has serious consequences in very many different ways. How procurement occurs affects this work and, in the long run, also the number of workplace accidents. Setting requirements for the work environment already at the procurement stage naturally prevents both workplace accidents and occupational diseases. It is also an effective way to prevent unscrupulous companies from gaining competitive advantages by bypassing the Work Environment Act to win tenders.
But the number of subcontractors also has an impact. Above all, it affects how the work is planned and carried out. It also affects accountability. Subcontractors are used on subcontractors in several stages. In the end, the main contractors have no overview.
The construction industry is among the worst-affected industries when it comes to workplace accidents. For several years, the construction industry has topped the Swedish Work Environment Authority's not-so-pleasant list of the number of deaths at workplaces. Furthermore, the Construction Market Commission gave a very gloomy picture of the industry in 2021 – it is characterized by crime, tax evasion, illegal labor, and many issues involving subcontractors.
Johan Lindholm, who is chairman of the trade union Byggnads, has described it like this: There is an unhealthy competition with chains of subcontractors to press prices. Hundreds of companies can work on a single workplace. No one takes full responsibility, and it has fatal consequences.
In a workplace where there are many subcontractors in combination with the fact that the employees come from several different countries, the preventive work environment work is also hindered. It becomes overwhelming, and as said, no one really takes responsibility.
Many times the answer is that we should increase the inspections. That is needed. Arbetsmiljöverket shall conduct more unannounced inspections at workplaces next year. The problem is perhaps that one does not get more resources to do so. The question is what it will mean in reality. But regardless, inspections are not enough either. We need to do more.
It is the employers who have responsibility for the working environment. That is where the change needs to occur. We will not, as someone has said, be able to inspect ourselves into a good working environment. We need to make major changes simultaneously. We need to have inspections, and we need to improve the work on the working environment. In that case, the regulatory framework for procurement also becomes decisive.
In addition to what Gunilla Carlsson has asked the Minister for Civil Affairs, I want to ask: Is one prepared to look at the problem with so many subcontractors and that no one really takes responsibility?
Statsrådet Erik Slottner (KD)
Mr. Speaker! First and foremost, I want to agree that it is a tragedy with every single individual who is involved in a workplace accident, and it means a tragedy for his or her family and close relatives. It is, of course, something that the government takes very seriously. It is hoped and I believe that every government does.
Regarding workplace accidents and, in the extreme case, fatalities, it is the Minister for Employment and Minister for Working Environment, Paulina Brandberg, who bears responsibility for these issues and is responsible in the government for this. If one wants an in-depth debate, that debate can still be conducted with her.
It is not about shifting blame in any way, Gunilla Carlsson and Eva Lindh, or about an unwillingness to do anything. It is very important to point out the regulatory framework and the legislation that exists today. It is a comprehensive law, and many parts are also very regulated within the EU. There are very great opportunities to act.
I have truly become aware of this during my year as civil minister with responsibility for public procurement. Many times, one can blame the legislation. One says: We cannot do this because of how the legislation looks.
I have been informed that one can manage procurement in very many different ways with the legislation we have today. It is very good to say and tell all procuring organizations and authorities. They may sometimes feel a bit discouraged because they cannot act as they would like to.
During last year 2023, I had a number of round-table discussions with an incredibly wide range of actors who are involved in public procurement in different ways. In those discussions, it really emerged that there is a lack, not least in the post-control when a contract is finalized. One thus misses many unserious and sometimes perhaps even criminal actors, or actors who do not deliver the services and goods that they have promised to provide.
Many times, a strategic approach and strategic procurement processes are lacking, meaning that one acts in the same way regardless of what it is that one procures and purchases. We know that municipalities and organizations that have a more strategic and category-managed procurement process have much better functioning processes. This, in turn, is also important for creating safe workplaces.
These round-table discussions shall also result in a review of the national procurement strategy, which we hope will lead to better-functioning procurements. The main purpose is to make procurement more attractive for small companies in the idea-driven sector. We also hope that a better procurement procedure can lead to safer and more secure workplaces with fewer unserious actors.
Since then, we have the Supplier Control Inquiry which submitted its report before Christmas. I believe the consultation period also expired before Christmas. The consultations are now being processed at the Government Offices. With the proposal it comes with, it will be easier to detect unserious and criminal actors even before a contract is concluded. I think that is very good. One can see it before concluding a contract with a company that wins a procurement instead of discovering this afterwards.
The investigation shows, however, that with today's regulatory framework, it is not possible to limit the number of subcontractors. In that case, one must work in a different way to avoid the problems that exist with very many subcontractors within construction and civil engineering in particular.
Gunilla Carlsson (S)
Mr. Speaker! The Minister returns to the point that there are already many ways to act with the procurement legislation we have today. That is absolutely true. But if it were good enough, we would not constantly receive reports of irregularities in the workplaces with actors who act in an unprofessional manner. I pointed out earlier that it concerns billions in resources that are disappearing out. They end up in the pockets not only of actors who are in Sweden but also of actors in other countries.
I also want to highlight what my colleague Eva Lindh pointed out. It concerns the problem within the construction industry, but also within other industries, where there are very long supply chains. This means an increased risk that the agreed contract terms are not respected. It also complicates the monitoring of compliance among the various subcontractors. When an accident does occur, it is very difficult to find who is responsible because there are so many different links. Those who ran the company when the contract was awarded may sometimes have disappeared, and it is new companies that come in.
The supplier control investigation, which has been mentioned previously, was commissioned by the former S-led government to look at how to tackle the unhealthy labor market. It was also tasked with looking at how one could deal with the low-cost supply chains. This is an issue that has been raised from the construction industry for a very long time. But unfortunately, the investigation chose not to present any proposals, which I think is unfortunate. The same applies to the assignment regarding proposals for labor law conditions to address labor-related crime.
It would have been good if one could have moved forward in both of those parts in order to be able to clear out some of the unserious actors who destroy so much on the Swedish labor market, both for employees and for serious entrepreneurs. They sometimes feel: It is no point in me running this company, because I cannot compete on the same terms. It is also about the fact that the citizens' money, tax revenue, is involved in feeding crime and unserious actors.
We Social Democrats point out that we believe the subcontracting chains should be limited. We also want to see that an investigation is commissioned to specifically look into that. I want to ask the Minister Slottner again if he intends to commission an investigation that looks at the subcontracting chains.
I also have a second question that is connected to all these fatal accidents. The Prime Minister has received an invitation from both Byggnads and Byggföretagen. They have requested a meeting with the Prime Minister. I am a bit curious if the Minister has an announcement to make. Has the Prime Minister sat down together with the industry to look at how one can address the workplace accidents?
The third question is: How does the government view the fact that so many billions are disappearing from the state treasury that we could otherwise use, among other things, to achieve better welfare in the country?
Eva Lindh (S)
Mr. Speaker! The reason we are raising the procurement regulatory framework is that it is a contributing cause of unhealthy competition and that welfare crime and fraud occur. It does not mean that all procurement leads to this. But every time we see that it affects and has negative consequences, which in the long run can end in workplace accidents, we must think that we should take back the regulatory framework to see what we could change. What is it that we could improve?
In several cases, actually every year, when workplace accidents have been discussed, the number of subcontractors is raised as an example of reasons why it is difficult to control this and difficult to achieve good work environment work. Therefore, we raise the question.
Right now, there is no proposal. We Social Democrats propose, as stated, that an investigation should be commissioned to examine how many seats this could be limited to. As it stands now, there can be up to hundreds of seats, which is unreasonable. It also means that no one can take responsibility.
In Norway, they have limited the number of subcontractors to two. They have done that in order to be able to put a stop to this and stop the abuse that exists on the labor market. We think that the SD-led government should look into this, and we hope that it does so and proceeds with seeing if there is anything in the regulatory framework that we could change.
I assume and believe that we all in here want to put a stop to the fraud and the welfare crime that exists and the workplace accidents where we have seen such terrible results during the past year and at the beginning of this year.
Statsrådet Erik Slottner (KD)
Mr. Speaker! It will be difficult for any SD-led government to do anything, Eva Lindh, because the SD-led government does not exist in Sweden. We have a bourgeois government consisting of and led by three parties: the Moderates, the Christian Democrats and the Liberals. We do not have any SD-government in this country, but rather we have a parliamentary cooperation with the Sweden Democrats in this government.
The Public Procurement Act is not included in the Tidö Agreement that we have concluded together with the Sweden Democrats, but it is something that the government can act on independently without the Tidö Agreement needing to be signed into the issues.
I don't quite know where to start, but I am not saying that there isn't a problem with subcontractors. I thought I said that in my first or second post here as well. I naturally see problems with a large number of subcontractors, which may be a bigger problem in some industries than in others. We know that this is particularly common within the construction and civil engineering industry.
We have an investigation that has just submitted its report. As Gunilla Carlsson also says here, it was tasked to look at whether it was possible to limit the number of subcontractors. The investigation concluded that with current EU law, this is not possible. It is clear that we can appoint a new investigation; if one does not like the answer an investigation provides, one can appoint a new one in the hope that a new investigator will come up with something else. But the question has thus just been investigated, and with current EU law, this is not possible.
The vast majority of the referral bodies also agree on this, which may be important to say. There are a couple of referral bodies that have said they do not agree with the conclusion. LO was one of the trade unions that came out and said this. But the vast majority of the referral bodies therefore agree with the investigation's assessment, and we will have to see what we land on and whether we share the assessment.
Then we must work within that framework, those regulations and that legislation that we have. According to these, contracting authorities can gain control. Even if they cannot limit the number of subcontractors, it is possible to gain control and request information about who these subcontractors are and what proportion of the procurement is to be performed by subcontractors. I think we should be clear about this. Please send that signal to contracting authorities: Have control over the procurements you enter into agreements for!
One of the goals we have with the review of the national procurement strategy is precisely that we should get more control and more strategic procurement work. It is partly about increasing competition and pressing costs so that we can bring home the billions that Gunilla Carlsson talks about to the welfare sector, partly about promoting small companies in the idea-driven sector. But it is also about creating safer and more secure workplaces and stopping unserious and criminal companies.
It should be added that both Boverket and Upphandlingsmyndigheten have received assignments in the regulatory letter for 2023. Upphandlingsmyndigheten's assignment extends a bit into 2025. They are to look specifically at what can be done within the regulatory framework and the legislation that exists today to limit criminal actors in public procurement.
As for whether the Prime Minister intends to meet Byggnads, that question must be asked of the Prime Minister himself. I am fully occupied with keeping track of my own agenda and calendar, so the Prime Minister must answer what he fills his days and meetings with.
There is no investigation announced regarding this, but now we are going to take care of the Supplier Control Investigation and hope that we can achieve good legislation based on it. I am convinced that the conclusions and considerations of the Supplier Control Investigation could lead to us curbing the occurrence of criminal and unprofessional actors in public procurement.
Gunilla Carlsson (S)
Mr. Speaker! Thank you, Minister, for answering some of the questions! I think it is quite clear that the SD-led government and the Minister are not so interested in doing anything about the problems out at our workplaces, where people risk not coming back home every day. Then one would have acted a bit more.
Not least, the government should have received or discussed the invitation that has come from Byggföretagen and Byggnads to a conversation on how to move forward and how to work with work environment issues. But this seems to be a completely uninteresting issue for the government.
When it comes to the questions I asked, I have not received any answers regarding the Supplier Control Investigation's proposal that Bolagsverket should have a mandate to provide a register. It is a proposal that we Social Democrats stand behind, because we believe it is an important step to get some way forward in the work. But when one reads in the bill list, one does not see any proposal, and the Minister also does not answer the question of when we can expect to have this on the table.
I received a passive answer that nothing can be done about the subcontracting chains due to current EU law. But then one must look at what can be done instead! Something must happen, because this is a huge problem. Many industries, and not just the construction industry but also others, highlight the problem with the subcontracting chains.
Mr. Speaker! I hope that the Minister takes the questions a bit more seriously and returns with concrete answers.
Statsrådet Erik Slottner (KD)
Mr. Speaker! First and foremost, I think it is incredibly unfair of Gunilla Carlsson to accuse the government of not being interested in reducing the number of fatal accidents at our workplaces in Sweden. What an unfair accusation is being uttered here in the Riksdag! One hears a lot, but I do not take this criticism to heart. I think it is very unfair to utter it at all.
The chairman of Byggnads, Transportarbetareförbundet and LO, among others, was present at the most recent round-table discussion I had on public procurement, where this issue, among others, was discussed. But if one wants a specific debate on workplace accidents, I think one should turn to the responsible minister for this, namely Paulina Brandberg. This interpellation is about public procurement and what changes we want to make in it.
A concrete question was asked regarding the Supplier Control Investigation's proposal that Boverket should provide a register. Yes, that is one of the proposals, but the consultation period has just ended. At the Ministry of Finance, we are now compiling the consultation responses, and then we will be able to get back to you on when we plan for the Council on Legislation referral and the bill, and what they will contain. It is still a bit early to say that. We must first compile the consultation responses before we can provide a further answer.
It is precisely about this: What can we do instead? That is why we have initiated a review of the national procurement strategy and held these round-table discussions: to see what we can do within current legislation to promote serious procurements, competitive procurements, and procurements that allow us to get as much quality as possible for every tax krona, and where we also increase the attractiveness of the procurement, not least for small companies and the idea-driven sector.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.