Sweden's government Research foundation burnt tax payers money in massive celebrations while researchers beg for funding

Tuesday, 14 August 2012
The Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research, the organisation that supposed to be promoting Swedish research has been found to have spending millions in recent years for throwing large parties and paying for it with several million of Krona, money which would have been used for pushing forward research.

In three years, party planner, Michael Bindefeld, received Skr9.3 million, but it is unclear exactly what the money went to him for. Agreements with the party planner was written without the State Foundation making public the contract for bidding. This gives an example of how the Swedish mechanism of favouritism and special interest works.

According to the Swedish daily, Dagens Nyheter which has been running the news, Foundation in celebrating its 15anniversary, there was a partying frenzy that cost the more than Skr2 million. The party was held in the Blue Hall in the Stockholm City Hall and the Nobel Banquet was used as a model template. Among the 500 invited guests there were provincial governors, directors, journalists, Minister for Education Jan Björklund (Liberal) and former Minister of Research Tobias Krantz (People's party).

The Foundation for Strategic Research has 14 employees, an anonymous office at the top of the World Trade Center in Stockholm and Skr 9 billion in running capital. The money comes from abandoned wage-earner funds back in the 1990s and also from taxes from businesses. The Foundation's mission is based on the government's directive to support Swedish research in medicine, science and engineering.

Last year, the Foundation paid out only the Skr542 million for research projects. But vital contribution to the Swedish research community which often suffer from lack of resources has been hard to come by.
Also simultaneous, the Foundation is reported to have spent millions on vague PR projects and parties.

The cost of the party are said to have been recorded internally in an unclear manner. Outwardly, however, the foundation was very coy about the party and had to mentioned it only in passing in the 2009 annual report.

Agreements with party planner Michael Bindefeld according to the paper, called into question, what the Foundation's CEO, Lars Rask, told the newspaper that he regrets that he did not warn the board of the need to "procure such agreements."

This revelation comes as more exposures are made about how the supposedly efficient and effective Swedish public organisation are squandering public fund for individual entertainment.
Not long ago the organisation that supposed to be growing small businesses in the country, as well as helping invest various EU funds in the country, the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth - Tillväxtverket was exposed to have used much of the millions at its disposal for their own satisfaction and enjoyment.

That later led to the government to look into the organisation and for it to start with internal reorganisation.
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by Scancomark.se Team

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