Anna Kinberg Batra refuses to resign – despite serious JO criticism

Published 26 September 2024 at 16.58

Domestic. Stockholm's governor Anna Kinberg Batra is now receiving serious criticism from the Justice Ombudsman (JO) for her three so-called friend recruitments. Nevertheless, she announces that she intends to remain in office.

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– It was never my intention to do wrong, but I admit that I have that and will work to regain trust, says Kinberg Batra to SVT.

The Sweden Democrats and the Trade Union ST are now demanding her resignation, but Kinberg Batra says she wants to learn from her mistakes and that similar situations will not occur to be repeated.

– I think the important thing in crises and criticism is that you learn and absorb. I have made mistakes in three cases when I was new as head of the authority – those situations will not arise again, says the governor to SVT.

Earlier on Thursday, the Justice Ombudsman directed serious criticism at Anna Kinberg Batra for not following the constitutional requirements for objectivity in three recruitments. In one of the cases, she was also rude, states JO.

– The actions of the county governor testify to nonchalance and a lack of respect for the basic regulations that exist to maintain public trust in public activities. All in all, she deserves serious criticism for her actions, says JO Per Lennerbrant.

JO began in April, following information in the media, an examination of the county administrative board's recruitment of a planning manager, an organizational developer and a department head. The background was, among other things, that the governor was friends with two of the people who were hired and that the person who got the position as head of department did not live up to a requirement in the advertisement for an academic degree.

In none of the procedures does the constitution require objectivity respected, notes JO.

– The investigation shows that in two cases the governor already decided in advance who would be hired and that in the third she chose to ignore a set merit requirement in order to hire the candidate she preferred. Her actions have led to all three procedures breaking down factually, says Per Lennerbrant.

In the decision, the Public Prosecutor's Office reasons about when an official is abusive and how abuse issues should be handled at an authority. JO believes that Anna Kinberg Batra was a jerk in the case of the head of planning because she is the godmother of the head of planning's children. The procedure therefore also lacked impartiality.

– It is remarkable that the governor did not pay enough attention to the issue of vexation and made sure that it was handled correctly, says JO Per Lennerbrant.

The county board as an authority is criticized for the fact that the employment as head of planning was only advertised on the authority's physical notice board and that it was done for too short a time, as well as because the employment was not reported to the Employment Service.