Vinnova: "Everything Wasn't Done Correctly"
Swedish Government Agency Vinnova is responding to the questions raised about a consultant following a review of invoices and contracts. The agency admits mistakes were made but denies that Director General Darja Isaksson has a personal relationship with the consultant.
The review of the Swedish government agency Vinnova conducted by former Palo Alto entrepreneur Jens Nylander has again come into the spotlight. Earlier this week, Nylander received the award “Årets Samhällsaktör" (Public Advocate of the Year) for using AI to uncover waste, fraud, and inefficiencies in Sweden's public finances, including a review of Vinnova's agreements and payments. He has also been nominated for the Grand Journalism Prize.
After reviewing Nylander's findings regarding a consultant working for Vinnova, SVNB sent some questions, to which the government agency responded.
"The background is that Vinnova needed to accelerate work on interoperability and data sharing, and therefore, special expertise that was not available internally was needed."
However, it is unclear who to quote at Vinnova. The questions were sent to Vinnova's press secretary, Daniel Holmberg, but the response email is signed by "the registry office."
The email continues:
"When procuring a consultant with unique, specialized skills, as was the case here, the regulations allow for a higher price than stated in the framework agreement."
"However, everything was not done correctly in the procurement process, which we have also admitted. The procurement was done with short notice and response time. We should have anticipated that the work was complex and innovative and could expand in terms of calendar time and scope. The work became more extensive than expected, and towards the end, several consultants were involved in the assignment."
Key Findings of Jens Nylander's Review
A consultant billed SEK 8.6 million over 22 months (September 2020 to December 2021), far exceeding the agreed part-time workload of 50%. A total of 3,886 hours were billed, including six months after the contract expired.
The consultant is behind a company called Knowledge Agency Europe which has worked as a subcontractor to companies with framework agreements with Vinnova.
Invoices lacked proper time reporting, and the consultant billed an additional SEK 610,000 under different company names for other projects. From 2019 to 2022, Vinnova paid a total of SEK 10.4 million related to this individual.
Kammarkollegiet, overseeing framework agreements, criticized the procurement for setting the consultant's hourly rate at SEK 2,200, well above the SEK 1,480 cap. The contract received only one bid, submitted by the consultant during a holiday period.
The consultant was part of a Vinnova delegation that visited Singapore. He handled applications and information related to a health innovation competition arranged by Vinnova.
According to Jens Nylander, there are signs that the consultant might be personally acquainted with Director General Darja Isaksson. The "registry office" denies this in the email to SVNB, stating that Isaksson is not personally familiar with the men behind the company.
The email to SVNB ends with:
"The work carried out has had a great positive impact on both our work and the work of other authorities. It has allowed actors in the innovation system to access funding data in a way that was not previously possible. However, we have learned from the mistakes that were made to reduce the risk of similar mistakes in the future."
As far as SVNB knows, the company or consultant has not worked with Vinnova in Palo Alto.
Read more about Jens Nylander here:
