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The Tensta pay subsidy scandal that DN has spoken of may be the tip of the iceberg. This is the conclusion of the police after mapping the life of the association in the vulnerable areas of the capital region.
– Right here there are a huge number of non-profit associations that receive grants from many different sources. Combined with the fact that transparency in partnerships is extremely limited, this poses a significant risk, says Kristian Halldin, coordinator of the regional police intelligence center in Stockholm.
Together with his colleague Henrik Ahlström, his task is to produce a basis for the joint work of the government against organized crime. Three years ago, they saw reasons to focus on the life of the local association.
– When we started counting, we quickly reached surprisingly high numbers. Especially in Rinkeby and Tensta, where there were around 1,000 nonprofits in an area with just over 30,000 residents, say Henrik Ahlström and Kristian Halldin.
– Or they were particularly interested in the activities of the association right here. Or there were other reasons.
Continued virility showed several divergent characteristics. It was often unclear what the associations were actually doing.
– In many cases, it seemed to be some kind of associations of zombies, which had no sensitive activity but were still alive anyway, says Kristian Halldin.
It is also common in many cases that associations are not financed by membership fees. Instead, revenue comes from the authorities, district committees, student unions, the county board of trustees, the General Estate Fund, and others in the form of various grants, with none of them having an overall picture.
– Taxpayers do not have the right not to see what someone else is giving, even if it is basically tax money.
What donors don’t either Annual reports, annual meeting minutes, or those who sit on the board can be automatically viewed.
– Unlike companies, this is not registered anywhere, but only needs to be displayed on demand, says Kristian Halldin.
In addition to this, in practice it is risk-free for non-profit associations to ignore the accounting of their income and expenses, as the case of audited associations in Tensta shows. The Accounting Law only applies to associations that also carry out commercial activities.
– All this facilitates the use of non-profit associations as a criminal tool. Lack of transparency and poor control open up to crime, which we have also seen in several cases, says Henrik Ahlström.
Henrik Ahlström and Kristian Halldin of the Stockholm Police urge donors to be very careful about payments to non-profit associations.
Photo: Roger Turesson
Except Tensta Associations In particular, there are other current cases in Södra Järva. One of the largest parishes in the area, for example, has been taxed just over 200,000 SEK after the disclosure of undeclared income. Studiefrämjandet, which manages the Folkbildningsrådet’s fiscal funds, has in turn recently been forced to return 5 million crowns, which are considered to have gone to fake and local study circles that have not been used. Medborgarskolan has also discovered so many errors that it has been decided to shut down all activities in the area.
– Of course, the most important thing is to stop incorrect payments before they go away. Once the money has been paid, it is incredibly difficult to get something back, Henrik Ahlström notes.
Ann-Katrin Åslund (L) is the second vice president of the Stockholm City Council and also has extensive experience on the Spånga-Tensta district committee. His explanation for the fact that an unhealthy culture may have emerged is that the Metropolitan Initiative and other government integration projects relied on the fact that there was a flora of partnerships to stimulate financially.
– Somehow later they taught the associations that they would have municipal money and other subsidies. I think it’s good that the police started this survey and they are happy to tell us what they came up with, Ann-Katrin Åslund tells DN.
Read more: Millions of wage subsidies are believed to have been paid for the wrong reasons
