How clean is Sweden off corruption? How institutions find it hard to detect corruption in Sweden though it exist

Monday, 11 June 2012
Not only nepotism, corruptions also exist in Sweden but if Sweden looks like a squeaky clean country, it is because much of the corruption is not reported. The non – reporting is also due to that it may be hard to detect the corruption or that those who are suppose to know just leave it slides by, while the public and journalists talk about it - it remains a contradicting issue.

According to the Swedish daily,  Svenska Dagbladet, authorities in Swedish administration who are supposed to be watching and checking traces of corruption in local governments and similar public organisations miss it most of the time.  But some employees risk their necks to recognize and report it though in secret while private individuals and journalists talk about it openly. These employees who blow the alarm are now being asked to be protected in order to improve report of corrupt practices without prejudice.

Weak protection for those who report, poor knowledge of rules and minimal control over the rules that are enforced are some of the problems identified in the recent report on corruption in the country's municipalities and counties.
“Not even half (f workers or officials ) respond that corruption is a live issue. Then it's probably time to think about what should be done,” says Johan Mörck, one of the State Treasury investigators.

When several large corruptions were noticed between 2010 and 2011 in Swedish municipalities, the government realized that the knowledge of corruption in local government was too weak and gave the State Treasury commissioned to study it.

“Corruption in Sweden is primitive and occurs throughout the country,” the report had said. “It's about close relationships between middle-aged men,” says Linda Hols Salén on Crime Prevention Council (Brå), which contributed to the report.

Brå detects only a fraction of these cases, municipalities are not interested in putting the light on the problem of the negative publicity that results. Citizens and journalists account for 71 percent of the notifications.

Although the number of notifications per year is relatively constant, the proportion of municipal officials who say that they have ever been offered a bribe doubled to 12 per cent from 2008 to 2011. According to investigators, it is not necessarily the case that corruption has increased, but awareness of what constitutes a bribe could make the number even larger.

When the public feels that public institutions are corrupt and that nepotism and bribery are the lee way towards obtaining a contract or doing business with the local authority, respect and trust will go away and such institutions will loose their place in the society.
By Scancomark.se Team