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In March, the shortage of protective equipment was great in Sweden and many municipalities groped for the equipment in the dark.
To try to get what was needed, social director Agneta Hugander presented the proposal to the municipal administration to order equipment from China, through her husband, who works with importing gym equipment from there every day.
– I knew my husband had a lot of contacts in China, so I asked him to research if he could use them to see if there was a chance to find a safe producer, one where we could really be sure we got the right quality. says social director Agneta Hugander to Helsingborgs Dagblad.
Cost 636,000 crowns
It ended with Klippan’s purchase of a total of 10,000 protective coats, caps, mouth guards, visors and protective overalls from China at a cost of SEK 636,000. The actual shipping cost is an additional 200,000 SEK.
To implement this, the municipality needed to circumvent the Public Procurement Law (LOU).
The head of the municipality, Tomas Rikse, tells HD that they made the assessment that it was a crisis situation and that “there are gaps for crisis situations” in the law.
– We had a long discussion. On one scale, how much we can stretch the rules, and on the other, how much we can risk for our users. In the end, it was an easy choice, he tells the newspaper.
“Highly motivated”
Agneta Hugander has not made the decision on the order herself. However, she says she believes that the company her husband works for has done community service.
– I think that wherever we bought protective gear, we would never have had to pay a factory price without a surcharge getting in the way. If the purchase saved a single auxiliary nurse or an elderly person from being infected with covid-19 or prevented the spread of the infection in the Klippan municipality, then I absolutely believe that it is very justified and is a good management of taxpayers’ money, He says.
Kvällposten searches for Agneta Hugander and Tomas Rikse.
