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Last November, eight State Administration officials flew to Florida in the United States to attend the Microsoft Ignite conference. The cost reached SEK 430,000, shows Review of the SR Caliber program.
Deputy Assistant Director Claes Mårtensson tells SR that traveling is a way to keep up with technological development and believes that the courses have not been available elsewhere.
– Yes, that has been our assessment, he says.
Free on the website
But according to the IT giant, all of the conference content is on its website and can be accessed for free.
Pelle Bokedal, a leisure politician for local Democrats in Gothenburg, has previously criticized Gothenburg officials who travel to Microsoft Igntite. He thinks they go because it’s fun, rather than the value of knowledge.
But according to the IT department of the Swedish Parliament, travel has been justified. Partly because they have had the opportunity to speak to Microsoft developers in the showroom and go to a hands-on workshop that is not available online, they write an email to SR.
What was the name of the workshop or who carried it out, they don’t remember, they write.
“It has been valuable”
Claes Mårtensson, deputy director of parliament, tells SR that he trusts his employees and that there is no reason to question that the conferences were valuable.
– These are people in whom I have no reason to believe other than to tell the truth and they are sincere when they say that this has been valuable.
