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Demokratiskolan
The Public procurement card from MethodKit for Society and Politics
Card 80 of 128 · MethodKit for Society & Politics
  • AreaThe state & public administration
  • Centre of gravityThe municipality
  • Points of influence3 on the journey
  • Decisive electionThe municipal election
The state & public administration

Public procurement

Contractors & government contracts

School meals, snow clearing, the hospital build and the computers in the classroom: the public sector buys goods and services for hundreds of billions of kronor every year. Public procurement decides what your tax money actually becomes. The rules come from the EU and the Riksdag, but the decisions about what to buy are most often made in your municipality.

Where does the power lie?1

  • Municipality · the buying decisions of everyday life · approx 35 %
  • Region · purchases for care & transport · approx 15 %
  • State · lou & oversight · approx 25 %
  • EU · directives & thresholds · approx 25 %

The rules are European and national, but the buying power is local. The municipal election governs what is actually procured near you.

How it works: the breakdown

The municipalityThe biggest buyer · centre of gravity
The regionCare & transport
Central governmentRules & oversight
Who decides?
The municipal executive board (kommunstyrelse), the committees and the municipality's procurers.
The regional executive board (regionstyrelse), the committees and the region's purchasing organisation.
The Riksdag passes the Public Procurement Act. The Competition Authority (Konkurrensverket) supervises, the Procurement Agency (Upphandlingsmyndigheten) provides support.
What do they decide?
School meals, building works, snow clearing and elderly care: municipalities account for a large share of all public purchases.
Medicines, medical equipment and public transport, often contracts that shape quality for many years to come.
The Public Procurement Act: rules on advertising, equal treatment, review and direct procurement.
Where are decisions made?
Procurements are advertised openly, and award decisions are official documents.
In advertised procurements and public award decisions.
In the Riksdag and at the agencies. Reviews are decided in the administrative court (förvaltningsrätt).
Who pays?
The municipal tax.
The regional tax.
The central government budget, plus the state's own large purchases via the agencies.
Fastest way in?
Municipal election Have your say on the requirements, for example on the food, via the committee or a citizen's proposal (medborgarförslag).
Regional election The regional election governs the requirements set in the contracts for care and transport.
General election The general election governs the Public Procurement Act, for example the room for environmental and labour requirements.
EUThe EU's procurement directives and thresholds govern when and how public purchases must be advertised across the whole union. Shaped in the European Parliament election.

Read the table by column to understand one level, or by row to compare the levels. The green level is the area's centre of gravity.

How it works: follow the decision

The case A municipality buys school meals
  1. EU

    The directives set the frame

    The EU's procurement directives say that larger public purchases must be advertised openly across the whole union, on equal terms for all bidders. The thresholds decide which rules apply.

  2. State

    LOU turns the directives into Swedish law

    The Riksdag has gathered the rules in the Public Procurement Act. The principles are equal treatment, transparency and proportionality: the requirements must be in reasonable proportion to what is being bought.

    Point of influence

    The law is changed through the Riksdag, and inquiries into procurement rules go out for open referral (remiss).

  3. Municipality

    The requirements are formulated

    The catering manager and the procurers write the tender documents: nutritional content, deliveries, share of organic food. The municipality's food policy, a political decision, governs which requirements are set.

    Point of influence

    The food policy is decided by elected officials. Food councils, parent councils and citizen's proposals (medborgarförslag) are ways in before the requirements are locked.

  4. Municipality

    The bids are assessed

    The procurement is advertised, suppliers submit bids and the municipality evaluates them according to the criteria. After the award decision, a losing supplier can ask for a review in the administrative court (förvaltningsrätt).

  5. Municipality

    The contract is followed up

    The contract often runs for several years. The municipality must check that the supplier delivers what the bid promised, from quality to working conditions.

    Point of influence

    Views on the food go to the catering unit and the committee. The contracts and the follow-up are official documents you can request.

  6. Your everyday life

    Tuesday: fish with potatoes

    The plate in the school canteen is the end of a chain of EU directives, Swedish law and municipal decisions. The next contract can be shaped right now.

The journey looks the same in reverse: what has been built came the same way, through the same decisions. Whoever knows where the decisions are made also knows where they can be changed.

Questions to discuss

  1. Do you know who cooks the food at the school or the care home in your municipality?

  2. Should the public sector always choose the lowest price, or may quality cost more, and who decides that?

  3. How local can the requirements reasonably be when the rules demand equal terms across the whole EU?

  4. Which purchase in your municipality would you want to examine, and why that one?

  5. What does it mean for democracy that so few know how public purchasing works?

Glossary

LOU
The Public Procurement Act, which governs how the public sector buys goods and services.
Tröskelvärde
The monetary limit, shared across the EU, that decides how widely a procurement must be advertised.
Anbud
A company's offer in a procurement, with price and conditions.
Tilldelningsbeslut
The notice of which bid won, an official document.
Överprövning
A supplier's option to have the procurement reviewed in the administrative court (förvaltningsrätt).
Direktupphandling
A purchase below a certain monetary limit that may be made without advertising.

Go further

Footnotes

1) This is an estimate of how decision-making power over the issue is split between the municipality, the region, central government and the EU, based on how responsibility is divided in legislation. A teaching guide, not an exact measurement.