Östra Göinge has favoured one and the same building firm

Kristianstadsbladet has gone through all the building projects, both big and small, that Östra Göinge municipality has had since 1st January 2012 until this October. The cost for all building projects during this period was 261 million crowns. Of that, almost 110 million crowns has gone to one and the same firm.

The firm has been given preferential treatment in five big projects, including a new nursery school in Hanaskog and the sports hall in Knislinge. The firm has been involved in one way or another in almost all of the building projects.

Three firms, A, B and C, were included in the skeleton agreement Östra Göinge negotiated in 2012.

Firm A, the most favoured firm, was first in line for all of the jobs. If they did not accept, the other two firms were given the chance, exactly as in the regulations.

Projects that were estimated to cost more that three million crowns were to be negotiated separately.

But now it turns out that Östra Göinge has not kept to its own skeleton ageement, its own conditions or the Public Procurement Act. Östra Göinge has paid the firm A total of 128 759 072 crowns since 1st January 2012.

Despite Östra Göinge municipality’s having signed a new skeleton agreement for building work in March 2017, the municipality continued to favour firm A.

– We didn’t get a single enquiry until we started to look into the matter last winter, say representatives for the other two building firms that were given contracts in the skeleton agreement.

The two firms think they ought to have been given the chance to submit a tender for the renovation of Trollabadet in Glimåkra. But Firm A got the job.

Östra Göinge was placed high in Svensk Näringsliv’s business rankings in October. Do you think that was fair?

– No, not in the case of building firms at any rate, they say.