Public procurement rules for ski enthusiasts – Falun 2015

As stated in a press release of 20 January 2015, the Swedish Competition Authority, Konkurrensverket, initiated an investigation to verify whether the Municipality of Falun infringed the rules on Public procurement when co-organising the 2015 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships with the Swedish Ski Association.

In short, by not allowing all potentially interested companies to submit a tender, the Municipality could have breached the rules on Public procurement when co-organising the Championships.

In its news sending of 19 January 2015, Sveriges Radio P4 Dalarna informed that the Municipality and the Swedish Ski Association established a limited company for the purpose of organising the 2015 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Falun. Subsequently, a third shareholder, Svenska skidspelen, joined the said company. As a result, the Municipality no longer was the majority shareholder. Thus, it was no longer obliged to apply rules on the Public procurement. The contracts entered by the company in question mainly concerned the procurement of construction services. Only the costs of constructing the ski jump facilities exceeded SEK 200 million.

As explained by Konkurrensverket, if a given arrangement is undertaken solely for the purpose of circumventing Public procurement rules, there may be a violation of these rules. According to the law on Public procurement, contracts of value exceeding SEK 500 000 to competition must be subject to an open public tender procedure.

Konkurrensverket has thus launched a formal investigation procedure in order to verify whether the Municipality of Falun may be in breach of rules on the Public procurement.