The police buy interpreting services annually for more than NOK 50 million. The Complaints Board for Public Procurement (Kofa) believes that the police did not follow the rules that apply to public procurement in the period 1 June 2018 – 31 May 2020. Larger contracts must be announced. That way, anyone who wants to participate in the competition can. At the same time, public enterprises ensure that they receive the right service at the right price. Møre og Romsdal and Trøndelag police districts have previously been fined for violating the procurement rules. Now, 8 of the country’s 12 police districts have been notified of a fee totaling NOK 11.8 million. The fee is 13 percent of the purchase. Troms and Innlandet are the exception. The tribunal believes that other police districts have entered into an illegal direct procurement. That is, a procurement that has not been announced. – In general, the lack of announcement is a serious violation of the regulations. Tor Martin Joramo Sikkeland in Kofa tells news. The long arm of the law is apparently now receiving the largest fee since the tribunal regained the fee authority in 2017. Rules for public procurement The public sector trades goods and services for around NOK 600 billion each year. Since the public sector cannot go bankrupt in the same way as a private company, the public sector is forced to think commercially through a number of rules. The rules must ensure that the money is utilized in the best possible way, prevent corruption and give the public confidence in the public’s use of money. Purchases for amounts over 1.3 million shall be put out to tender. An illegal direct procurement means that a contract has not been put out to tender. A framework agreement entered into after a tender round cannot last for more than four years. If you continue to trade on the agreement beyond four years, there will be a breach of the regulations. The Public Procurement Appeals Board (Kofa) has the option of imposing fines for breaches of the rules. – Serious negligence Kofa writes that public clients should have a good knowledge of the rules for public procurement. “In the tribunal’s view, the defendant’s non-compliance with the duty to publish must be characterized as grossly negligent,” the notice states. The Oslo police district, which also includes Asker and Bærum, alone traded interpreting services for more than NOK 30 million, without announcing the contract. Kofa will give the country’s largest police district a penalty fee of NOK 3.9 million. Here is the entire list: Oslo 3,900,000 East 2,700,000 West 1,600,000 Southwest 1,330,000 Southeast 1,290,000 Agder 578,000 Nordland 265,000 Finnmark 169,000 The police have been given a deadline of 1 September to submit a possible answer to the tribunal. Lost in court The background for what can now be a historic penalty charge are two previous cases from Møre og Romsdal and Trøndelag. In 2020, the units received more than 2 million in penalties for illegal direct procurement of interpreting services. The police brought the decisions to court for review. They won in the district court, but in the court of appeal, the tribunal’s decision was upheld. The police do not agree with the decisions. – The police did not share the Court of Appeal’s opinion that there was a basis for characterizing the breach as grossly negligent, writes department director Marianne Haajem in the Police’s joint services in an e-mail to news. It is the Police’s joint services that represent the districts in the appeal cases. Disagree with the law Haajem says there was doubt as to whether the purchase of interpreting services in different languages was to be regarded as “similar contracts”. – There was no guiding practice from national or international courts, Haajem emphasizes. The question in court was whether the interpreting services throughout the year should be seen as a single procurement, or whether each individual order was a separate separate procurement. Kofa came to the conclusion that the assignments had to be seen as a whole. The acquisition should therefore have been announced. The complaints led to the police putting in place a framework agreement with suppliers in June 2020. news has been in contact with the owner of the company who complained to the police to the tribunal. He does not want to comment on the alerts the police have now received.
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The police are punished for offenses – notify record fee – news Troms and Finnmark
