Published 2 November 2024 at 16.14
Domestic. The former S profile Johan Westerholm has once again sparked debate through a post on his site Ledarsidorna where he highlights the growing problem with what he calls “soft corruption” in Sweden.
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Westerholm refers to US state senator William E. Schluter, who in his book “Soft Corruption: How Unethical Conduct Undermines Good Government and What To Do About It” describes how public officials in New Jersey accept favors from lobbyists and give assignments to relatives, which is legal but still deeply corrupt.
Westerholm draws parallels to Sweden and believes that similar behavior – corruption that bypasses the narrow legal boundaries for corruption crimes – is beginning to be seen everywhere in the Swedish state administration.
“Corruption does not always have to be about a brown envelope or a bag filled with cash,” writes Westerholm.
He points out that it is rather about unethical behavior and conflicts of interest that undermine the public's trust in society.
A concrete example that Westerholm highlights is how the former governor of Stockholm County, Anna Kinberg Batra (M), recruited friends to attractive services contrary to the regulations.
Sida's former director general Carin Jämtin (S) is also taken as an example, when shortly before her resignation she decided to defy the authority's guidelines and enter into new long agreements with civil aid organizations, including the Church of Sweden Act and Forum Civ, without an acceptable explanation.
< p>Despite the government communicating other priorities, Jämtin chose to support these organizations, which Westerholm believes reflects an informal power structure where personal and political relationships weigh heavily. He points out that the links between these organizations and Jämtin are well known in aid circles and within social democracy, but that this type of action is rarely scrutinized in public.
He believes that these are clear cases of “soft corruption” where personal relationships takes precedence over competence and suitability. According to him, Kinberg Batra and Jämtin are hardly alone in this behavior, although it received a lot of attention in this particular case.
Westerholm warns that this type of corruption can create a “silent acceptance” of nepotistic behavior , which in turn can have serious consequences for democracy and trust in the Swedish state administration.