[ad_1]
This week DN has written about residents in the Kagghamra area of southern Botkyrka who were left without water in their home for two years during the municipality’s blasting work for municipal water and sewage.
The technical administration acquired the job to draw municipal water and sewage to Kagghamra in the summer of 2016 in a so-called lowest price open tender procedure, where the winner is whoever meets the requirements and offers the lowest price.
The company Bite Mark & läggning won the acquisition at a price of SEK 49 million, SEK 33 million cheaper than competitor SVEVIA.
But just a few weeks after starting work, problems arose. The drawings, the actual design that the municipality had made, did not match. Rocks appeared where there would be no rocks and groundwater was sprayed where it would have drained.
Soil conditions yielded the municipality and the company in an infected conflict in relation to the compensation in the tender. The contractor said they would close the job if they didn’t receive more compensation, says Lars Lönnkvist, then the project manager in the municipality.
In April 2018, the parties agreed to deviate from the original agreement because the money was not enough to complete the job.
Photo: DN
The municipality, for its part, ensured that the works were completed as soon as possible so that the residents of Kagghamra could connect to municipal water. The parties purchased a report from an independent external consultant to find out who was responsible for the problems that arose.
But before it was completed in May 2018, a financial renegotiation took place between the parties. By then, former moderate opposition councilman Jimmy Baker had just stepped down from his assignments on the city board and community building committee and took over as CEO of the company.
The renegotiation meant that the municipality and the contractor deviated from the original agreement of 49 million and signed a new agreement for current account, which means that the municipality subsequently paid the company continuously all the expenses incurred in the work.
After the renegotiation, the final bill for the work amounted to SEK 109 million, more than 100 percent more expensive than the original deal.
Kagghamra is a 1960s holiday home area in southern Botkyrka. The area is located on a hill and the terrain is hilly and forested.
Photo: Roger Vestman
Olle Lundin, professor of administrative law at Uppsala University, is very sharp in his assessment.
– This is unauthorized direct contracting and a violation of the Procurement Law.
– Some changes and additions can be made to the agreement. But when it comes to doubling down on hiring, it’s a crime. This should be reported to the Swedish Competition Authority, says Olle Lundin.
Comply with the law when the job didn’t work out, a completely new acquisition was required with an open tender procedure, says Olle Lundin.
– Since the bidding documents were incorrect, you need to redo everything.
The municipality and the contractor began work according to the new agreement on April 1, 2018. But the written agreement on the matter was not drawn up until June 2019, when the contractor’s work in Kagghamra had just finished and had finally been inspected. .
Olle Lundin, professor of administrative law at Uppsala University.
Photo: Mikael Wallerstedt, Mikael Wallerstedt, Mikael Wallerstedt, Mikael Wallerstedt
Why was the agreement signed a year later? In my world, do contracts come before behavior changes?
– In my world too, but you have to ask the municipality about this. The municipality has the agreements. We do not. We were also nervous and asked for these contracts and all we knew was that he will come, he will come, says Jimmy Baker of Bite Mark & Anläggning.
The chairman of the technical committee, Stefan Dayne (KD), no longer wants to answer questions about Kagghamra, but refers to the chief of staff of the municipal board.
But that applies to your administration. Do you think you are aware of your management and what is happening?
– I’m 100 percent in control. We have done a reorganization. We work a lot. We have found many things. But in these questions, you better ask him questions. I have the confidence to take care of Botkyrka and do what is good for Botkyrka.
Do you think you are doing your job the right way when you can’t answer questions?
– Yes but not now. I don’t have the documents with me. I cannot answer all the questions.
Peter Norén has been a procurement manager in Botkyrka Municipality since the fall of 2018. He was not employed when the deal was renegotiated, but he can still say a few things.
– I agree with Olle Lundin that major changes to a contract may constitute a violation of the Public Procurement Law, but I imagine it was the least bad alternative faced by the officials in this case in order to complete the job.
– What explains the price increase is the change in circumstances in the project you have written about in DN. Sometimes you have to weigh the issues against each other and take a broader perspective than the law on public procurement. These are complex projects and changing contractors and making a completely new acquisition would delay the project and create other problems, says Peter Norén.
He says he’s straight It cannot be said whether what happened is a violation of the Acquisitions Law, but that indicates a lot.
– It looks like that. This is something we need to see a return in peace and quiet. If it is a crime, we will probably contact the Swedish Competition Authority about it, which is the supervisory authority.
– Regarding the agreements that are drawn up and signed so far, I can only say that it looks sloppy, says Peter Norén.
Various execution services have been contracted for the municipal water and sewerage project in Kagghamra. On November 16 of this year, the news came that the municipality of Botkyrka is not complying with the agreements with suppliers NCC and Nordic Drilling Systems in the Kagghamra project due to “irregularities in the way of acting of both suppliers and employees of the municipality” . A former employee of the technical administration who recently had to leave has been reported to the police.
