Response to interpellation 2024/25:94 on measures against corruption
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerns measures against corruption and organized crime. M considers that corruption threatens the democratic system and trust 1. M works on strengthening criminal law protection, reviewing rules on transparency, and combating corruption in both the public and private sectors 1. M wants more intrusive permit reviews for HVB homes 2, to choke the criminal economy 3, and to conduct impact assessments for measures that favor organized crime 3. S argues that corruption is a growing problem when private actors disregard their obligations 4. S wants to bring HVB activities back under municipal control 5 and advocates for radical measures to stop criminal activity.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)
Madam Speaker! Gustaf Lantz has asked me if I and the government intend to take any measures to meet the increasing corruption.
I want to first establish that Sweden has a tradition of high integrity in the public administration. It is something we should be proud of and something we must safeguard. At the same time, we know that the provision of public services is challenged by corruption and undue influence, where new threats are emerging, not least linked to organized crime.
Corruption threatens the democratic system and the citizens' trust in the state, municipalities, and regions. It can also distort competition and have an inhibiting effect on trade and economic growth. The importance of effective work against corruption can therefore not be overemphasized.
The questions are important for the government, and we are working systematically to counteract unauthorized influence and corruption through a number of different measures. This includes, among other things, measures to reduce the vulnerability of public employees and to strengthen the criminal law protection for practitioners of certain socially beneficial functions. Furthermore, a parliamentarily appointed committee has been tasked with reviewing the regulations on transparency in the funding of political parties and considering requirements for transparency and oversight of contacts between political decision-makers and so-called lobbyists.
This summer, the government decided on a new action plan against corruption and undue influence. With the action plan as a basis, we are ramping up the work to strengthen the public administration's ability to withstand corruption, infiltration, and undue influence. Through this, the fight against organized crime is also intensified.
An important part of the action plan is increased cooperation between authorities and a developed follow-up. Here, I would particularly like to highlight the important role of the National Audit Office and the mandate that the agency has received to develop support, cooperation between authorities, and the follow-up of the work against corruption and undue influence specifically in the public administration. Together with the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention, Brå, the National Audit Office has also been tasked with developing and disseminating support material that can be used to prevent and manage undue influence in authorities, municipalities, and regions.
In addition, I want to mention that an investigator is reviewing whether municipalities should be able, in more cases than today, to check employees and persons who are offered employment or assignments within the municipalities against the criminal record register and the suspicion register. Another investigator has been tasked with proposing changes to the process for security screenings for operators who conduct security-sensitive activities.
It should also be added that we have tasked the Prosecution Authority and the Economic Crime Authority to report on measures to strengthen protection against undue influence in these operations. The Swedish Courts Administration has previously had a corresponding mandate.
An important matter is also that the government has tasked an investigator to review the criminal legislation on corruption and misconduct in office. This assignment includes, among other things, taking a position on whether today's rules need to be modernized and made more effective. Another important and pressing issue for the investigation to take a position on is whether the criminal liability for misconduct in office should be expanded.
What I have now accounted for reflects that the government takes these issues very seriously. The measures that are now being taken on a broad front will significantly move forward society's positions in the fight against corruption and undue influence. Ultimately, it is about safeguarding our free and open society and the trust in our democratic rule of law.
Gustaf Lantz (S)
Madam Speaker! Thank you for the answer, Minister of Justice!
It is, like, not part of our Swedish self-image that we need to talk particularly much about corruption problems; on the contrary, we have been proud out in the world that we have had a very sound public administration. We have had order and tidiness and been relatively spared from corruption. Unfortunately, that self-image is beginning to change, and that also applies to the image of us out in the world. We have probably talked too little about corruption, and we have done too little about it.
It is therefore very gratifying to take part in the Minister for Justice's response. These are important measures that are now being taken, and they are welcome and urgent.
The answer, however, is a very clear focus on authorities and public employees. Sweden stands out in that we, through agreements, have entrusted private actors with many authority tasks and administrative mandates. This does not concern small things, but rather concerns things such as vehicle testing, that is, whether one is allowed to drive one's car from the inspection. It can concern what grades one receives to apply to university, and it can concern the execution of decisions on assistance to demented elderly. Not least, it can concern what we have discussed earlier today, namely care of young people who are within, among other things, HVB-activities.
We have unfortunately also become aware of a number of irregularities where, in order to profit, obligations and the tasks to be performed for the public have been sidelined, which has affected people. We have a very unpleasant example in Uppsala where Attendo had staff who clocked in at addresses where they were supposed to provide the care that demented people needed but did not give them any care. The demented people were instead left sitting with unchanged diapers. There are several such examples.
There is actually no legal definition of corruption in Sweden. However, we have a definition that we use in government and parliament, namely to exploit a public position to achieve an improper gain for oneself or others. I am very curious whether the Minister of Justice considers that this definition of corruption includes the examples I have given here, where it is thus a private execution that is financed by public funds and where one has a mandate from the public.
Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)
Madam Speaker! I thank Gustaf Lantz for the opportunity to discuss the subject.
Actually, I can answer yes straight out to the question, even if it might not be a legal analysis of each of the examples that Gustaf Lantz highlighted.
If one takes a different starting point for the question, namely the criminal law regulation in the area, is it not the case that corruption as it is regulated in criminal law only hits public officials, so to speak. This with taking and giving of bribes and so on is instead something that to a high degree involves everyone who engages in such activity, regardless of whether one is a private actor or a public actor or if it occurs in the interaction between the public and the private.
The central point is, as Gustaf Lantz also points out, that one utilizes one's position to obtain improper advantages and does so in such a way that one, so to speak, violates rules, agreements, commitments and so on. That also means that effective work against corruption must to a very high degree involve the whole of society, also the private business sector – and then not just that part of the business sector that, for example, contributes as a provider in the public welfare.
However, I can think that it becomes particularly significant when it concerns, for example, private companies operating in the public sector, because it concerns the taxpayers' money and furthermore the citizens' trust in public activities.
Without saying that I endorse the description that Gustaf Lantz makes in some kind of more formal, legal sense, and without having any closer knowledge of each of the examples that Gustaf Lantz pointed out, I think it is therefore a self-evident starting point that the work against corruption in all its forms must include both the public and the private. It becomes particularly urgent when those spheres meet within the framework of publicly funded welfare.
Gustaf Lantz (S)
Madam Speaker! I thank the Minister for Justice very much for the answer.
I think the Minister for Justice said it very well in his first speech, namely that this can damage trust in the democratic rule of law. That is exactly what it is about. From the individual citizen's perspective, it probably doesn't matter whether it is a public provider or a private provider if one's legal right to care or nursing is sidelined. I therefore think it is natural to have that starting point, both legally and politically, which the Minister for Justice and I agree on.
I bought a house once, and then I ordered an inspection from a company that does house inspections. I was lucky; there were no moisture damages. On the other hand, the inspector noted carefully if there were risk constructions. In attic windows, I quickly understood, there is a risk of moisture leaking in, so one should keep an eye out for that. It was noted carefully in the protocol.
If we look at the analogy of society as a home – it has been done before – we can say that there are risk constructions in society. I am thinking as a Social Democrat about HVB-homes that take care of and are to care for young people who have gone wrong in life and risk entering into organized crime. We know from before that there have been problems, not least on the staff side, that one has not broken with their criminal past. For me, it is a clear risk construction.
The Social Democrats have presented proposals regarding care within HVB where individuals with criminal behavior act. It is about reclaiming the operations under municipal management to avoid risks regarding, among other things, ownership and leakage of funds to organized crime. It is also about getting a better opportunity to control the care that is provided.
I have understood that the government has not shown much interest in that proposal, but I still intend to ask a relatively open question. Are there any risk structures or areas in society that the Minister for Justice assesses would require a different view on ownership to reclaim the activity, to set new legal requirements, or in other ways try to restructure society so that we are better able to withstand organized crime and corruption?
Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)
Madam Speaker! There are, of course, many risks and vulnerabilities in the public welfare. We are also not exempt from corruption in the publicly funded part of the welfare that is operated under municipal, regional, or state management. One could say that access to a lot of money is in itself a vulnerability, or access to other material benefits or other benefits.
If one looks at action plans aimed at corruption that the government decides on, it is no coincidence that issues regarding procurement and public purchasing are included. These are processes where large values are at stake and where it can be said that vulnerabilities can be exploited by those who are out for improper purposes.
It is quite obvious that the HVB homes are part of a system with major vulnerabilities. This is what we see examples of every day in the form of welfare crime, which admittedly is not limited to HVB homes, and particularly vulnerable young people. Given how the system is constructed with lack of supervision and lack of control, opportunities have been created for criminals to recruit and socialize young people into criminal activities.
My starting point is that for a home with those types of connections, regardless of the principal, the permit shall be revoked. That activity shall not be allowed to be conducted.
There is no doubt that approximately 80 percent of HVB homes are run in private ownership, and it is therefore relevant to discuss the issue. For the sake of fairness and precision, it is also reasonable to state that it is not only there that we are confronted with the problems. I noted, for example, this week that raids were carried out against HVB homes in Western Sweden owned by a municipal association, that is to say a long row of municipalities, where the leadership at the homes could be arrested for large narcotics possession and where the scale suggests that they are part of organized crime.
My simple perception is that all welfare activities involving large sums of money contain their own vulnerabilities, and it is extremely important that we make the systems more robust. This means there should be more intrusive permit reviews, better access to background material regardless of whether it is load registers, suspicion registers, or coordinating information about different suppliers in different registers. For example, Bolagsverket has such work underway to create greater transparency towards procuring municipalities. Furthermore, there should be ongoing control, supervision, and relentless response against those actors who, at the taxpayers' expense and with great costs for vulnerable children and young people, if we are talking about HVB homes, engage in more or less criminal activity.
Gustaf Lantz (S)
Madam Speaker! I am glad that this debate did not develop into a sprawling ideological debate about ownership in general, but that we are looking at every risk factor we have in society from the perspective of corruption and criminal activity. I nevertheless interpret it as that the Minister for Justice does not exclude any tools in addressing the serious situation. We share the view that it is unreasonable that HVB-homes and Sis-homes have functioned as murder mission centers and cash cows for the private operators regarding organized crime. It must be stopped. Then we can discuss the ways. Radical measures may be needed, that is to say, the reclamation of some of the homes into public ownership.
In conclusion, I would like to leave a tip for the Minister of Justice. I understand that he has a lot to do, but perhaps he had a bit less in his calendar during the summer. I listened to a summer talk by Amir Rostami, and he had an interesting proposal that I thought we should all take to heart or at least reflect upon.
For projects that can affect the environment to some extent, there is an obligation to conduct an environmental impact assessment. Amir Rostami called for the same perspective when it comes to measures that can have an impact on and benefit organized crime. I thought that sounded interesting. I do not think I have heard so many discuss this, and it is perhaps so fresh that we have not locked ourselves into specific positions. It would be interesting to hear the Minister for Justice's spontaneous reflections regarding such a proposal.
Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)
Madam Speaker! I thank Gustaf Lantz for the tip. I also listened to Amir Rostami's summer program, but it is obvious that I have to revisit it to find exactly that concrete tip. I still think, on the volley, that it is a very reasonable approach.
There is no doubt whatsoever that if we are to tackle organized crime, we must do several things simultaneously. It is also evident that several of the problems overlap, but stopping the gross violence and putting an end to the recruitment of children and young people into criminal networks is largely linked to the importance of strangling the criminal economy. It is very much what Amir Rostami and others are calling for, that is, a more systematic work to search for and identify vulnerabilities, not least in our welfare systems, and close them so that they cannot be exploited as opportunities for criminal actors or others who are out for improper purposes.
It is perhaps a nice thing to take with us, a summer holiday experience into some November holiday days. Then we can contemplate Amir Rostami's tips and see if we can find a way forward when we meet, perhaps already in the beginning of November.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.